Re: Correlations between docs and bottom line

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> I only have anecdotal evidence, Since Microsoft stopped producing a 
> manual for their software, I have not purchased, nor recommended for 
> purchase any Microsoft software product.

That has hardly hurt Microsoft's bottom line. Last quarter alone their profits
jumped up 26%. So clearly their lack of printed documentation has had no
detrimental affect on the bottom line whatsoever. In fact, you could argue that
since MS got rid of printed docs - or made people pay for them - they have
actually IMPROVED revenue.

Now, MS is a huge company that dominates a number of key high tech sectors. So
clearly they can get away with things that smaller firms could not.

> >In short, have any of you ever successfully demonstrated how the
> >production/quality of docs can be tied statistically to the overall
> >financial health of the organization to which the doc dept. belongs?

I would say docs can demonstrate how well a product has been designed,
implemented, and thought out. Good docs are good sales tools as well as good
marketing and user tools. Back when I did docs for security firms, our docs
actually became something the sales team used to impress customers. That's
because the docs were rich in concepts, value, diagrams, and images. Things that
made people WANT to read the docs. 

However, if you look at most docs out there, they are utterly devoid of useful
content. The most common atrocity I see is the "single-sourced-stream-of-s**t."
In an effort to make everything fit inside a single-source system, the docs
become incoherent streams of text and numbered instruction lists with no graphics
or diagrams. So much effort and energy is poured into building an STC
award-winning single-source system that the writers have no time left to actually
write anything of value. So much time is spent fondling and fiddling with styles
and fonts, that nobody has time to actually learn the technologies being used. 

So if docs are to contribute to the bottom line, they have to do more than just
capture instructions. They have to demonstrate value, sell the products, and
educate users. 

However, this would require writers to, like, actually understand technology. And
many writers vehemently oppose such practices with shouts of "I can't know
everything" and "I'm a writer not a sales person" and "Users don't want to be
educated" and all sorts of excuses as to why they are unable to do good work. As
such, most executives see documentation as a necessary and distasteful evil to
which they meter out the absolute bare minimum of resources. 

It is a vicious circle. 

Andrew Plato 




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