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Yes, I agree there's not time to deliver a good product. I'm just trying to improve things a little here.
Thank you to all who replied to this thread. I found the comments valuable, and also morale boosting, because others out there somewhere also try and plan their documentation projects. It's always amazing to receive the different angles and view points from this list.
Have an excellent weekend tech writers,
Eileen
-----Original Message-----
From: HBacheler -at- aol -dot- com [mailto:HBacheler -at- aol -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 3:36 PM
To: Neumann, Eileen; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: documentation plans - allocating time
Eileen,
A quick, and superficial look at your timeline show that you don't have a
'snowballs chance...' of making your deadline with a 'good product'.
Of course, the below scenario is BEST CASE, and ass-u-mes that all concerned
drop what they are doing to review an dcomment on your document.
What if they aren't there and you have to wait?
Take this scenario (these are work days, @ 6.2 hours per day)
Research - 5 days
Writing - 5 days
Cleanup - 2 days (Table of contents, appendices, indexes, etc)
SME review - 3 days (x number of SMEs)
include SME comments - 3 days (to include all SME comments)
Review with SMEs again (undetermined time)
Manager 1 - 3 days (to review, and TW include comments)
Manager 2 (supervisor of Manager 1), 3 days ( to review and TW include
comments)
Redo documentation to ensure all comments, corrections, etc) are completed.
- 1 day
Review by SMEs - 2 days
Review by Manager 1 - 1 day
Review by Manager 2 - 1 day
Oops, Review by QA to ensure ALL internal standards are met, legal
obligations are satisfied, and anyone else has been satisfied.
-------------------------------------
If there is a tech writer that can say this is not a reasonable scenario,
please advise me where I may have erred.
Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it
----------
Harry
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