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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.
Ultimately, the only effective process is to establish that the
documentation, whether online help, PDF or printed, is part
of the product, to be examined and compared to whatever it
is documenting as part of whatever pre-shipment QA is
performed so that discrepancies between what the docs say
is there and what is really there are flagged as product faults
that must be resolved prior to release. As long as documents
continue to be considered the poor cousin or bastard child
of "the real product," then you will forever be consigned to
this particular wing of purgatory.
If you're thinking right about now that your company's
product release process doesn't have a pre-shipment QA
check, you have bigger problems than how to keep the
docs current with last minute changes.
What is the best process you've ever worked with (or dreamed of) that
enables technical authors to find out about changes/new projects etc
before the very last minute is past?
The prize for the best answer is me doing my damnedest to implement it
here :)
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