Quote:
Originally Posted by astra
Then I would be very concerned about shedding $500 for a gadget made by company that cannot write the proper manual.
|
By coincidence, I've closed a contract concerning the process of user guides in 2006. User guides are drafted in parallel to development. Usually there are 2 to 5 revisions and most of the times the user guide gets finished the very last second. Should a company suspend market release because of documentation? From a legal perspective, they have to document. But do they have to describe every single detail? When closing contracts like that, we analyse the existing documentation. Usually, we find hundreds of inconsistencies, for example when comparing product A to product B. And that's usually for products way more expensive.
If you insist on a correct user guide, free of any errors, this doesn't leave many products for you, I fear.
Just consider the workflow: Product is ready. Last details are added to the documentation. Product is intended to ship. But you have to translate your documentation first. That's usually up to 2 weeks. Now the company either can postpone their shipment by those 2 weeks. Or they can translate an early version and ship in time. What would you do with your product? There's a reason, why documentation on average has 5 to 7 revisions in year 1.