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Simple, remember who your audience is! If your audience is the testers
and developers than by all means find out how much information they need
and supply it either directly or by referencing specific parts of the
3rd party documentation. However, if your audience is outside customers
who already have the 3rd party software and only need to know how your
software needs to be set up to work well with the others, then simply
explain to the testers and developers that you are writing to the
ultimate end user of the tool not to them.
Bernice Kieffer
Martha Silverspring wrote:
>
> I'm documenting one of those monster software suites that needs 17 pieces of 3rd party software installed before it'll run.
> I've been told by my boss that I don't need to document the installation of the 3rd party stuff: they have their own manuals, and besides, with all those companies making changes to their software, how would we ever be able to keep our manual current? So I'm just documenting the configurations and settings that need to be made to the 3rd party products to make our product run.
> But all the developers and testers (in another state) are complaining that I haven't documented enough; they want me to document everything that needs to be installed.
> How the heck do you handle this no-win situation?
> Martha
>
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