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Subject:What is not mandated is forbidden From:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Jun 2014 13:14:22 -0400
Does everyone subscribe to the notion that customer docs should contain only what is necessary?
Is there a place for material that is good to know, or that might reduce customer inquiries, but is not necessarily critical to performing a task?
The most recent example that prompted this thought was a statement in an e-mail thread (internal) where a PLM stated clearly and succinctly how 'discovered vulnerabilities' are handled for our products. I know that the question comes up, in different forms, with some regularity, so I asked if it would be good to include the two-sentence statement in the main customer docs. The answer was that it wasn't really necessary in the docs, as it was "marketing-speak to show how secure our stuff is". In a sense, that's true, but it was also a quick, clear description of the procedure we go through, and what the three possible outcomes are.
I didn't push, because it wasn't terrifically important, and not every battle is worth fighting. But, as it stands, that statement exists only as guidance for techs and sales engineers to respond to customers who ask. So, by that point, there's already a call in progress. If they had seen the info in the docs, the call might never have been made.
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