Planning of documentation

[Joanne Wittenbrook <jwittenbrook -at- ameritech -dot- net>]

>Do we know if the majority of us participate in real planning of 
>customerdocumentation?
   
  I have. Most companies of significant size use basic project management practices. In my last big project I was creating documentation right along with development, and of course there was a ton of changing as screenshots and such changed. I was in on meetings with the developers as we discussed requirements and interface changes.
   
  Of course there was a big push when the product was finally launched to get all the stuff up to date and ready to distribute. I had to consider that there was a help desk to be trained on the software and a sales force to be trained on selling points. End-user documentation also had to pass through the Advertising group to make sure we followed Corporate guidelines for appearance and identity. All this had to happen before a release.
   
  I suspect some of the backward cycles of creating documentation is why manuals have gotten a pretty bad reputation in the general public. There are a lot of bad ones.
  Joanne

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