Scoping a doc project

["Damien Braniff" <Damien -dot- Braniff -at- asg -dot- com>]

Tony,
As Sharon said, the scope of the project and the scope of the doc
project are usually two entirely (though related) things. Having said
that, here's how I've seen the 'process' work at different places:

Project Definition:
  First comes the 'idea'
  Then is it feasible? Will it make money?
  Can we do it?
This will involve market research (will people buy it? At what price?
etc.) and many ideas die at that point.
If it gets past that then you determine what features are wanted/you can
afford to put it.
It's here that you SET (not determine) the boundaries. You specify what
will be in the product, what it will do etc. The specification sets the
project boundaries. They may change quite a bit early on (iterative
process, customer feedback etc) but will, eventually be firm(ish!).
This stage may be a simple paper exercise, involve prototyping etc.
TWers may or may not be involved.

It's after this that the scope of the doc project is set and that's
determined by the user/task analysis.

Damien Braniff | Sr. Technical Writer 
damienb -at- asg -dot- com 

Technical Communications
ASG | asg.com
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Tel:  +44 (0) 28.9072.3124
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