How do you help clients install software?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

John Cornellier wondered: <<We are reviewing the documents we include 
to help deploy a software product. Ignoring such post-installation aids 
as... [deleted list]>>

Good thought. Installation should stand apart. If your installation 
software doesn't provide the necessary information onscreen, close at 
hand during the installation, you need to reconsider your choice of 
software. (Of course, it may be the only choice... don't recall seeing 
a "help" or "more info." button in an installer. Do the installer-maker 
programs such as Wise allow for this kind of sophistication?)

<<I wish to focus on: - release notes / readme>>

Again, these should be part of the installer. If you've got time to 
write them, you've got time to integrate them in the installer. I know 
this isn't commonly done, but that's poor planning and a lack of 
concern for the user, not "best practices".

<<- installation guide (could be broken in two: quick start + admin & 
config. guide)>>

Why not make this part of the installation? Step 1 in the installation 
should lead the installer through a quick process of analysis: Do I 
have everything I need (disk space, knowledge, etc.) to do the 
installation? If not, where can I get the necessaries?

Again, this isn't often done, but that's laziness, not careful thought. 
Why ask someone to go spelunking in Windows to find out if they have a 
specific DLL required (per the release notes), when it's trivial for 
the installer to check whether the right DLL version is present and, if 
not, offer to download it from the manufacturer Web site? Better yet, 
put it on your installation CD! Ditto for graphics drivers, database 
components, and on an on.

The purpose of an installation process is twofold: First, tell the user 
everything they need to know to determine whether they can or should 
proceed. Second, hold their hand throughout the installation, and give 
them all the support they need during the process. Why don't we write 
online help for installation software? Beats me!

<<- anything else e.g. install wizards, CD blurbs, download 
instructions, etc.>>

Download instructions are a pre-sale device, and nobody wants to read 
CD blurbs. Don't know about you, but I go out of my way to avoid 
reading installation instructions... 30 seconds skimming the 
readme.txt, then I dive right into the install and only go back to that 
file if something looks wrong. I doubt most people are any different. 
That means you should be relying on the install wizard to get things 
right, not forcing the user to do this work. Aren't computers supposed 
to make our lives easier? We're not here to make things easier for the 
software, after all.

<<I'm trying to reach a consensus among various interested parties - 
tech writers, testing, marketing, support, deployment engineers (the 
guys who burn the CDs and check the target operating environments). 
There is not much agreement on what these docs are actually supposed to 
do. >>

The one group that's significantly missing from this list? The users. 
Your support department will provide some useful advice, and Marketing 
may (if they actually polled your users rather than simply making 
assumptions about them), but why not go direct to the source? They'll 
tell you exactly what those docs are supposed to do... you just have to 
ask them.

<<E.g. some people think that the release notes are a kind of 
quasi-marketing brochure which trumpet the new features>>

That's a load of fecal matter. If someone has already bought the 
software, they either already know about the new features (that's why 
they bought it!) or they don't care.

<<Others (including me) think the release notes should be a "warts and 
all" late-breaking document including known bugs and workarounds.>>

That's my preference... as a user, not as a theoretician. The goal of 
creating an installer is to install the software successfully--not to 
test how good the user is at assembling a batch of cryptic "oh yeah, we 
forgot to tell you..." details in the readme file.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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