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Re: Has anyone ever written the user guide before the product was developed (coded)?
Subject:Re: Has anyone ever written the user guide before the product was developed (coded)? From:Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:33:42 -0800
You might start with a set of customer request documents (CRDs). These
describe various desired features, as dictated by customers. These morph
into ERDs, or engineering requirements documents. The code monkeys work from
the ERDs. On one project we had to write the entire 700-pp. manual from a
set of ERDs coupled with flowcharts. It's a tough row to hoe, but it's
doable.
> Chris
On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 12:51 PM, Vanessa ScottSabic <
vanessascottsabic -at- nanometrics -dot- ca> wrote:
> We had an interesting conversation with our manager today and since we are
> about to begin work on a new product the idea was proposed that we try to
> write the user guide before the product is coded so that the developers
> design what we have documented instead of us documenting what they have
> designed. Of course, this does not mean that we dictate the design and
> functionality of the product but the idea is that we could be proactive
> rather than reactive and also help the developers.
>
> Our first step was to research this idea and see what
> information/experiences we could find. I have done some preliminary
> research
> and I did not find much at all about this.
>
> Has anyone tried anything like this? Would anyone be willing to share your
> experiences/tips? Can anyone point me to some resources?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Vanessa
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