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Your points are valid. And indeed, some of this is also addressed in
Hartman's "Starting a Doc Group" book. I only provided a few main topics as
a starting point.
Amazon doesn't allow you to view the TOC for this particular book, but you
can go here to read editorial and customer reviews (sorry for any icky line
breaks):
-----Original Message-----
From: Christensen, Kent [mailto:lkchris -at- sandia -dot- gov]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 11:03 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: re: Documentation Procedures
re: This book touches on all the main things you'll need to consider (e.g.,
choosing tools, creating style guides, scheduling and planning projects, and
building a doc group), then provides a nice resource section at the back for
more detailed information.
This is cool, but it would be kind of sad if this is all there is. And if
it's considered most important, i.e., the "main thing."
I'd offer as answer to the original question--help in setting up a
documentation department--that the first priority is establishing people
relationships ... with customers. Both customers; the SMEs and the ultimate
customers, i.e. users. How will SMEs and writers communicate? Will there
be user testing of draft documentation? Will the group publish FAQs based
on customer response? Stuff like that.
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