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Subject:Re: Why docs aren't tested From:Karla McMaster <mcmaster%pcmail -dot- cti-pet -dot- com -at- CTI-PET -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 10 Aug 1994 08:42:54 EST
Mark Levinson wrote about why documentation doesn't get tested.
** Another reason in some places is that by the time the software
is frozen the development process has eaten up not only its own
slack time but the hoped-for documentation time as well,
and the product has got to get out the door PDQ or else.
Each day's delay attributable to fine-tuning the
documentation is a very visible immediate horror, while the
future problems from inaccurate documentation are still well
over the horizon. (In fact, in a properly underorganized
company, they may never trickle back to HQ at all...)
I know this phenomenon only too well...I have _never_ been in a situation where
this was not the case. I have always been working for smaller companies behind
the 8-ball, who had to get the product out NOW. I had formed the impression
that this was nearly always the case. Are things really different in some
companies? I'd be very interested to hear actual experiences...
Karla McMaster, technical writer
CTI-PET Systems, Inc., Knoxville, TN
mcmaster -at- cti-pet -dot- com
