Figure 1 — Document Development Environment Quadrangle
Standard Output
This is what everyone wants, but it is an "extreme" because the conditions necessary to produce it are seldom appreciated and hence rarely achieved. Standard Output is achieved when the final deliverable is being/will be produced in the following environment:
Authors who are well disciplined (understand and follow agreed good practice
procedures) and are competent in their field(s).
The
text output is/will be a planned, continuous logical sequence of information with
straightforward graphics of planned, meaningful content.
The
people creating the document have total control over the delivered format (which
effectively removes task complexity as a major development issue because the
document developers can control it).
Magic
This is the environment characterised by chaos and garbage in, but a Standard Output product is required. It is probably the worst development environment because it is characterised by the perception that the documentation is just a blankety-blank nuisance that has to be written with the least amount of effort from everyone involved in "real work". Magic documentation is required when the final deliverable is being/will be produced in the following environment:
The
"contributors" who are undisciplined (no desire to follow any procedure,
except their own, which is clearly the only way to do it) and have low writing ability
(even though they may be very competent in their field(s)).
In the
past, the text output actually looks like at least ten people wrote it in isolation
from each other. The graphics make sense only to the people who drew them.
Although the deliverable format is in the control of the document development team, it
is usually turned into an unmaintainable art-form that is difficult to manage during
development and impossible to maintain post-delivery. (The actual task
complexity is not an issue in this environment; it is completely overwhelmed by
the complexity of the environment itself!)
Notice that these environments are also typified by the same contributors always
knowing, after the fact, how to do it better next time, but never do.
Highly Structured
This environment is dominated by the complexity of the deliverable document. It is an environment where mature processes are required if you want to deliver the product without losing your sanity or your shirt (that is, your company/department profit margin). This condition exists when the final deliverable is being/will be produced in the following environment:
Authors who can work co-operatively under tight time constraints; who are competent in
the their field(s) and well disciplined in accepting and following pre-existing
procedures.
The
text output is data driven (as in tabular data, financials etc) with low requirement
for narrative text and yet it must be well presented, coherent and make a positive
impression on its target audience.
The
document development team have no apparent control over an imposed, rigid, complex
format. The task complexity tends to overwhelm the authors and detracts from
the quality of the final document.
Nightmare
In a few words, any job that has been left to a time when it is virtually impossible to provide the amount of information required at a credible standard. The typical response is to throw more people at it. Wrong — you actually have more chance of pulling it off with fewer, clearer thinking heads. You need a SWAT Team. But remember, Heroes do not come cheap. Before committing to this task, ask yourself these questions:
Why
are you doing this?
Will
someone literally die if you do not complete this task? (Let's get some
perspective on the real importance of the matter.)
Given
that nothing is impossible for those who do not have to do it, how committed are the
senior managers to finding a real solution that is achievable in the number of hours
available to do the work?
What
are you trying to achieve?
Will
the company collapse if you do not succeed with this document? If so, maybe spending
money on a panic-driven approach is the worst thing to do. There are other ways; talk
to us.
Lasotell staff frequently use conference-style dictaphones to facilitate much of the information gathering. This lets technical staff present their material in anyway it suits them and to talk about it. We produce the written material from the tape. It saves the technical people a considerable amount of time (one hour of tape results in approximately five to six pages of text that would otherwise have taken at least two to three hours of engineer time to write per page ). The engineer needs only to review and markup the output from the technical writer.
For more information, please e-mail us or visit the Contacts page for other avenues of contact.
