RE: "Layered" Release notes format?

Subject: RE: "Layered" Release notes format?
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: "Emoto" <emoto1 -at- gmail -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 10:16:15 -0400

Emoto [Bob] revealed:

> Hi guys,
>
> Am going to be doing some big release notes, and the guy most in the
> know of what the customer needs wants to see if there is some way (in
> the release notes) to represent a rolling 18 month window and what
> will be coming in future releases. We are having releases about every
> 6 months, starting in Feb. He was thinking along the lines of how an
> excel spreadsheet has tabs along the bottom, maybe a doc with separate
> "layers" would work. The first tab would be the current release notes,
> and each successive tab would be the next release out on the timeline.
> The future tabs would be clones of the existing one with progressively
> less and less detailed info, but more and more high-level stuff.
>
> Does this make sense, and have you done anything like it, or have any
> suggestions? We typically deliver release notes in PDF, and I am
> wondering if Adobe offers anything along these lines.

Wow. Revealing your entire future roadmap to your competitors? Either
you guys have _no_ competition, or you are such a small player in your
space that you don't worry about big competitors swooping you on
features and capabilities.

Um... never mind the technical aspects of presentation - be sure to
include a big, loud disclaimer that all "forward-looking" statements are
figments of imagination and do not in any way represent promises to
perform.

The first thing that'll happen is that your next release will have only
half the expected new features or fixes in it, because of time/resource
constraints, or because of a shift in market direction, but you'll be
stuck with a public statement of intention that says otherwise.

Just my four cents.

- Kevin







The information contained in this electronic mail transmission
may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected
from disclosure. If you have received this communication in
error, please notify us immediately by replying to this
message and deleting it from your computer without copying
or disclosing it.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help gives you everything you need to author and
publish quality Help, Web, and print content. Perfect for technical
authors, developers, and policy writers. Download a FREE trial.
http://www.componentone.com/DocToHelp/

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.


References:
"Layered" Release notes format?: From: Emoto

Previous by Author: RE: could someone test a form in OLD versions of WORD for me (preWord 2000)
Next by Author: RE: Looking for a Start-up swapper
Previous by Thread: "Layered" Release notes format?
Next by Thread: Friday files: Short conversations


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads