TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Guestimation questions From:Deb Carnegie <deb -at- SYMBOLOGIC -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 8 Mar 1994 13:34:00 P
These may seem like rather strange questions but management decisions on
whether to hire more help is riding on me providing some ballpark figures
for these scheduling issues.
I'm currently the only writer for a company developing a new product (there
is no existing documentation). We would like to deliver all of the
documentation online. I have never written online documentation before, nor
have set up a system to do this--I've done some reading on the subject, but
still feel rather naive about this unknown territory.
>Is there a rule of thumb for estimating how long it will take to write
online documentation and/or online help? (for example, I've heard the
industry standard for paper documentation is 2 finished pages/day)
>Does anyone have a feeling for the amount of time it generally takes to set
up an online doc delivery system. My gut feeling for doing a needs
analysis, software evaluation, purchase and setup is about 3 months. Does
this seem accurate?
I greatly appreciate any thoughts on these questions -- If people prefer,
you can respond directly to me at deb -at- symbologic -dot- com -dot-