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Subject:Re: Dev. Cycle and the Manual From:Anthony Markatos <tonymar -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 9 Jun 1999 15:59:51 PDT
Brian Martin said:
I also agree that creating a user manual would be virtually impossible
at the end of the requirements phase. Assuming that development starts
with requirements and continues with architecture, system design, and
component design, it seems unreasonable to attempt a user manual so
early. If functionality is detailed in the System Design and widgets
are described in the Component Design, what would you be writing about?
Tony Markatos responds:
As someone with significant experience both creating software end user
manuals AND creating functional requirements specs I know that, while you
may not be able to WRITE the manual from the specs, you sure can PLAN and
ORGANIZE a manual from good specs (not to the last detail, of course, but
pretty in-depth). Good requirements specs capture the essential end user
tasks that must be performed and how all of those tasks interrelate. This
is exactly what is needed to plan and organize task oriented manuals.
Tony Markatos
(tonymar -at- hotmail -dot- com)
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