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this part of the recent survey for opinions and comments addresses the
highly sensitive issue of "style"....
most of the e-mail received rejected the notion that the manuals
maintained by an organization should all have the "same look and feel";
i.e. be organized, presented, formatted, produced, and revised to in a
consistent manner over the lifetime of the document.
several writers rejected outright the concept of standardization - rather
one person was outraged that such a thought would threaten his "art".
we see "art" and standards in this work as being the difference between
off-road rec. vehicles being driven by maniacs across the desert and lines
on the road, signage, and proper training in driving habits and courtesy.
several replies contained various approaches to writing a manual that
included a step-by-step approach identified as a "methodology", and we
agreed with most of them.
however, there was not a single mention of a well-defined process or
methodology for managing the entire publishing process -- one that would
reliably apply to any application by coordinating the 7 major tasks
involved with this work, from authoring to revising/auditing the finished
product sometime into the future.
we expected to find a widely used approach to managing the entire process
in such a way as to integrate the work with the tools and the people who
use them -- nothing appears to available in this regard.
we believe that this lack of defined publishing process contributes to an
inability to delivery results of a pre-determined cost and quality.
if anyone has any additional (knowledgeable) comments or opinions on this
matter, they will be gratefully received.
thank you for your participation.
sincerely,
jack w. bonney,
vancouver canada
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