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Subject:Re: Features of a well-written procedure From:Tom Murrell <trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 18 Dec 2000 11:46:49 -0800 (PST)
Regarding the so-called Rule of Seven:
If I were designing a system or a task or a procedure or a whatzit I
would try to design the thing with human beings in mind. I would try to
limit discreet tasks or procedures to 7 +/- 2 steps so as to keep
things manageable for most, if not all, the people who have to perform
the tasks/steps/procedures/whatever.
Where I have a problem with this so-called rule is when I'm documenting
something designed and created by others. If I have a task to do that
will require more than 7 +/- 2 steps, that's the way it was designed,
and I don't do my reader a service by artificially combining steps or
tasks to keep to some arbitrary number. In fact, if I get a 14 step
procedure down to seven steps, I'm afraid I may have made it
sufficiently complex in the combining that it really should be only
five steps to match the complexity I've created. So I've actually
missed the needed target in the first place.
Sorry, but it seems to me that 7 +/- 2 is a design tool, not a
documentation tool. To me, a step is a discreet action that produces a
discreet result. If I combine them, I'm simply increased the complexity
rather than simplifying things for the reader/user/doer.
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