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I was interested to read responses on this topic, and hear how others deal with
this.
I'm sole tech writer as well, and when I started here we had no release notes
(or version numbers, for that matter). It's been a process of communicating
with developers to find out what they're doing. We're using a rather unwieldy
database for reporting bugs, and developers often say 'fixed' with no indication
of what they've done - but at least they mark it, and enter _something_ into the
database, which is a result of me requesting it over and over. So we're getting
there....
I sit in on the developer meetings where the lead usually has printed out
relevant issues to be addressed in the next release, then I go through that on
my own to see what may be coming up, and follow up on whether they're actually
fixed. When I come up with a list I go over it with the lead for the project,
and sometimes query QA and/or test and enter issues myself. (btw, do other
techwriters test software and enter bugs in the database?)
Because we're basically developing what our customers want (no boxed software,
just pockets of installations, but growing) I do put bug fixes, 'cos they're
what customers have asked to be fixed. Also any changesin the interface or how
the software works. But we keep it short, and the amount of detail depends on
the importance of the change. There's no need to list specifics on recording
improvements, for instance, but when there are enough changes to justify it
(when it's sufficiently improved), I'll say 'improvements to sound quality and
file size of recordings' or something similar.
thanks all for the info
Cayenne
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