TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Time estimate for writing manual From:TechComm Dood <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 7 Jul 2004 16:28:15 -0400
> I said "seems reasonable" because I didn't want to say that it was just
> impossible to give an hour figure at this stage. And another reason was
> that when I looked at the total dollar figure of the entire job, it was
> over $8,000, and I thought to myself that a manual (user and admin), a
> Help file, and technical specifications -- three documents -- for
> $8,000 -- sounded about right. I suppose it's obvious that I have never
> done this before.
The last Help system I worked on cost $100,000.00 USD just to
localize!!! Granted it was gigantic...
> How does one word a statement of work if the time involved is unknown at
> the outset?
You firmly state that it's unknown and that the immediate scope of
work is to scope the work, and then an accurate scope of work will be
submitted once the scope is known. Wow... too much use of the word
scope... I have an impulse to rinse... LOL!
> Is there a way to figure out the time per feature or something?
Mostly that comes from practice. Feature is a very gray term. One
feature might be "opens a file" and another might be "turns gifs into
gold". You need to allow yourself ample time to size up the product,
and go from there.
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
COMPONENTONE DOC-TO-HELP 7 PROFESSIONAL: From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed documentation. New version offers yearly subscription service, Natural Search, Modular TOC Utility, Image Map Editor, Theme Designer, Context String Editor, plus more. http://www.componentone.com/doctohelp .
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
