Re: Dealing with a vague document request

[John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

This isn't an unusual request. However, I'm sure he has a picture in his
mind of what he expects to see. Create a catalog of 4-5 different types of
documents that you can find on the web and ask him to ignore the content,
but select an example of what he has in mind.

What's going to be very important is the following:

   - What is this going to be used for?
   - How will it be maintained.
   - How will it be delivered?
   - Who will be involved in maintaining it?


On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 1:11 PM Joe Weinmunson <litlfrog -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Our company is growing and we have a few people doing documentation now.
> However, all of us are some combination of 1) young, 2) self-taught, and/or
> 3) not experienced in a big corporate environment. That's causing some
> delay right now because we are not sure how to interpret the Sales
> Manager's request.
>
> "the knowledge lies with you [tech support, training, and documentation].
> Our issue is that only a couple of people here at the company actually know
> what these products do. Mae laid out some groundwork, but pulled much of
> the info from the existing website. What we need is a basic list of what
> these products do. What they can do. I understand this is a big task. this
> will end up being a living document as the program changes. Certainly
> changes have been made since the site was built and will continue to be
> made. So what we need is a list of what each product does."
>
> I am trying to figure out whether to format this as some sort of internal
> white paper, as fact sheets for each module of the software, or as
> something else. I know we'll get there eventually, but I'd appreciate any
> advice folks have in dealing with the request.
>
> --
> Joe Weinmunson
>
> âWhat you read when you donât have to determines what you will be when you
> canât help it.â
> --Oscar Wilde
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-- 
John Posada
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