Documentation change requests?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Anachie Shakespeare wonders: <<Does anyone out there deal with Document
Change Request, as a formal process.>>

Not formally, but we do the same thing informally: I get a note from the
developers saying that something has changed and the documentation should
reflect that change. It would actually be very nice if this was a more
formal process.

<<do you use a set template for document change request submissions>>

No, since we don't have a formal process, but based on the kinds of requests
I get, one would be very useful indeed. Here's what I'd recommend using as a
template:
- developer identification (who has made the change--the person you'll
contact to explain anything you don't understand and who will review and
approve the revised documentation)
- a "want it by" date plus a "really need it by" date (the two are rarely
the same) so you can prioritize your work
- a clear description of how to find the change in the software (menu path
to reach the dialog box, what keys to press, etc.)
- what the function used to do (to help you find the old description in your
documentation and, if people have been using the old function for a time, to
help you explain what no longer works the way it used to work)
- what the function has become (so you know what is supposed to happen when
you invoke the function)

There are probably a few other things you could add to a request template,
but these are the essential elements, and there's a certain virtue in
keeping things simple.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

"Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it
is."--Terry Pratchett