Re: Agile software development and effect on techwriting

[Carl NUCKOLS <Carl -dot- NUCKOLS -at- na -dot- biomerieux -dot- com>]

<<You work along side development. I have a project in
which my team is doing that right now. Major coding
and first draft of documentation ends at the end of
this month. Code and documentation cleanup happens for
2-3 weeks after that, then formal product release
testing, then prodution.

Unless you work in an organization where EVERYTHING
changes in the last week of development, there is
absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have the
majority of the documentation written and ready to go
by the time development is "done". You may need a day
or two to make sure any last-minute GUI changes are
reflected in the documentation, but two months?
Frankly, we don't have that kind of time to waste, so
we work while development works. And you know, oddly
enough, usability issues are caught early on in the
product and developers are more readily available for
information, and all the info is fresh in everyone's minds.>>

I agree with what Goober Writer wrote.  I'm not an agile development
disciple, but I do like the environment.  I also believe that it results in
both good documentation and a good application.  It also seems to be
conducive to the tech writer having a big impact on the GUI design, which I
enjoy.

Check out the following link to an article from Intercom about writing in
an XP environment - http://www.stc.org/intercom/PDFs/2003/200302_06-09.pdf.
A software developer friend came up with the idea, and I wrote it.  If
anyone is interested in discussing this further offline, I'm more than
willing.  I would not trade my development team for anything.

Regards,
Carl Nuckols