Re: "If the docs are too good..."

[Sean Wheller <seanwhe -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

--- John Posada <writer -at- tdandw -dot- com> wrote:
> 
> > So an SME I was talking to floated the ol' air
> biscuit
> that he "was told
> > by someone who'd been told that if the product
> docs were
> too good, that
> > clients wouldn't purchase the training."  Any
> suggestions
> for snappy
> > come-backs to that one?
> 
> "That's funny...someone told me just the other day
> that if
> application was better, they wouldn't need
> documentation and
> we could pass the documentation cost into better
> raises for
> the developers."

AFAIK the developers rarely do produce better programs
as the additional cost and time required for usability
is often prohibitive.

Your comment also highlights a general problem. That
most developers do not see the tech docs and the
author team as an integral part of product
development.

Not to generalize, but many developer teams are stuck
in an ivory tower. The result is often poor team work
across the project, with the lack of cohesion
impacting on areas such as documentation, testing and
QA.

Time and again, I have found myself having to take a
slow approach to changing this mindset and I see this
experience resonating in some discussions on this
list.

It's almost as if there is a glass ceiling that must
be broken if the product is to reach higher-levels.

Sean Wheller

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