TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: docs fitting into development From:John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 30 Jan 2002 13:07:16 -0800 (PST)
> The project leader (new to the company) requested that the
> documentation be
> complete when our QA group gets the modules. I told him that as
> long as the
> materials are still in development, it's too soon to take a
This isn't as unreasonable as it sounds and infact, sounds similar to
what is done around here.
The IT (developers) department creates several "requirements"
documents. In the real world, these would be specs; Technical Specs.,
System Specs., and/or Functional Specs.
I get three documents. On document describes the process for using
the application. One describes, at field level, all the
characteristics (size, required/not required, max/min size, type of
input, presenation of the data in the fields, etc.) of each element
on the Interface and the third document, anything involving output
(some of out applications, the output is an email which when
answered, based on the input to speific fields, intiates a workflow
process and database update.
>From the three documents, I create a User Guide. A User Guide is
maybe 30-50 pages and right now, I have 6 cooking. Each one takes me
a couple of weeks and I have most of the occuring concurrently. In
place of specific screens, I leave a placeholder.
Now...I have a finished document (except pictures) for the
application the way it was designed to work. I send it out to a
specific set of people for review.
I now wait for the application to be available in User Validation
Testing (UVT). Using my document, I run the application and at this
point, I also capture screens. If there are differences between what
I have and what they have, some discussion is generated to validate
whether it was an intention or unintentional deviation. Intentional,
I change...Unintentional...what ever needs to be done.
IT developers like this because it is another testing set of
eyeballs.
In this way, I deliver my finished documenet no more than 48 hours
after getting first crack at the application and most times, the
document is ready for access on the web before the application is
moved to Production from UVT.
It works fine around here. Be open to changing the existing way of
doing things. They don't want someone who gets enjoyment at punching
holes. They want someone who devises solutions that saves time and
money. When I proposed this process, I was met with doubt. Now, this
process, and most other things I suggest are taken quite
seriously...and I get included in alot more discussions that
otherwise, I might have been ommitted from.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! http://auctions.yahoo.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
