RE: Time to perfom a procedure

["Carey Jennifer (Cry)" <jennifer -dot- carey -at- cdi -dot- cerberus -dot- ch>]

Raju

I think your point is a good one. Much of the "art" or "skill" of writing an
effective manual is knowing what *not* to say. In fact, I still need to
consider whether this information might be useful or completely unnecessary
in my own documentation. 

But I do think that in John's case, especially given the audience, it would
be valuable to keep them motivated to finish. So, if it's a 6-phase process,
letting them know where they are time-wise could be really useful.  

The scenario I think about is this: 
Imagine that we don't include the times in the document.  
Time: 13:30 - Joe the executive sits down 30 minutes before lunch to do the
process, so you and I know that he has just enough time to get through it
all.  What Joe doesn't know is that, a) it should take exactly the amount of
time he has availble, and that of those 30 total minutes, phases I and II
take by far the longest. 

Time: 13:50 - Joe's now 20 minutes into the process and still in phase II
when his colleague Bob calls to ask him to go to lunch in 10 minutes. Joe
sees he's only in phase II of VI and thinks "wow, this has taken 20 minutes
and I'm only in phase II. I don't have an hour to do this thing. I'll have
to do it another time."  Realistically, Joe won't set aside that time until
some other situation necessitates his performing it.

If Joe knew that phases III-VI will only take 10 more minutes, he would see
the obvious value in finishing the project now even if it means going to
lunch 5 minutes late...

I don't doubt that there might be a scenario that argues against including
the time and would be interested to hear it if you have one...thoughts?

Jennifer

----------------------------------------
Raju wrote:

The idea of including the time a process should take is really *fantastic*,
but there is a possibility that it might lead to certain unwanted
side-effects.

The grasping of human mind is varying, depending on the approach an
individual takes to the process of learning. So, fixing a time frame will,
undoubtedly, surface some personality traits and might lead to either
under-estimation of over-estimation of the content presented.

Under-estimation leads to degrading the concept, and over-estimation leads
to inferiority complex. In something that is professional, why bring
anything that will affect the process ?

Raju

--------------------------


Jennifer wrote:


To answer your question, I haven't ever included the time a process should
take, but I think it's a *fantastic* idea and would consider doing it
wherever appropriate (relevant, useful) in my own documentation.  I also
think explaining that this is a one time procedure and will take 20-30
minutes is a good thing to include in the text right before the procedure.





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