RE: Do Document Reviews Provide Significant Feedback?

["Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

A review as late in the game as the one under discussion should never result
in a reorg. The doc should have been planned and approved before writing
started. Everyone should have been aware of what was going in the manual and
in what order long before the writing started. This should be the technical
review for accuracy.

At this point in the review process, the specific review under discussion
should result in catching inaccuracies, incorrect information, concepts not
clearly described, vague conceptual graphics, inaccurate procedures, and
identify holes. (Oops! We explained how and why you want to restrict user
policies but forgot to tell them how and why that impacts reporting!)

But that's how I ran my business and am now running a group for my employer.
It's not how everyone does it. Not doing it this way can result in a chaotic
review process. And it also depends on the care reviewers take, which can be
a result of corporate culture. We've all had the technical reviewer who
"fixes" grammar and spelling and ignores the technical content.

The beauty of planned docs in the review process is you get to smile at
people and say "Yes, I can see that you think this 600 page manual that
needs to be in the build in 2 weeks should be gutted and restructured. It's
too bad you didn't raise this issue at the planning meetings you attended.
But I'm looking forward to your input on this issue at the planning meeting
for the next version of the product."

It's a lovely feeling.


sharon

Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
Immediate Past President of IESTC

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On
Behalf Of Tony Markos
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 8:49 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Do Document Reviews Provide Signifcant Feedback?


Question to all listerv members:

Someone recently posted about having people review
his/her up to 600 page manuals.  Can such reviews
result in significant feedback such as reorgan1zation
suggestions or the filling of logical "holes", or will
feedback on text be limited to minnor corrections?

Tony Markos



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