Target audience, or the people who will read your writing, is the first and the most important tool to be used in technical communication, no matter the field. The effects of target audience resemble those of interaction design personas; ideally, target audience and personas meld into a single entity.
You must know from the start who will read the documentation, for what purpose, in what circumstances; otherwise, it is almost impossible to get the documentation right. Should you create a reference or a manual? A spiral online help system? For technology-savvy users or housewives? Should the reference be task-oriented or function-oriented?
You must know from the start who will read the documentation, for what purpose, in what circumstances; otherwise, it is almost impossible to get the documentation right. Should you create a reference or a manual? A spiral online help system? For technology-savvy users or housewives? Should the reference be task-oriented or function-oriented?
28/06: Workblows
The history of development concepts demonstrates clearly where the Mainstream of Development lies: less force to do more work, less personnel to complete larger projects, less time to go from design to production, less testing to achieve acceptable quality... Why all those monster inc's still exist, then? Hundreds of developers, hundreds of managers, service personnel by dozens, bosses by tens, companies occupying entire floors of skyscrapers; where do they all come from? This would be understandable with a goal of creating more workplaces in exchange for projects increasingly more difficult to maintain and complete. But thinking cost-effeciency, one is inevitably left surprized. What are all these people doing?
28/06: I'm going slightly blind...
Any serious profession imposes some ugly danger upon the person working really hard. Soldiers can get killed, divers can drown, a pilot can crash one day, and a lawyer can sue somebody wrongly and be shot for it! Truly serious work means truly serious danger to the health of its most lucky practitioner.
Risks of the popular and long-standing professions are known and familiar, but what do laymen think about that ugly job programmers have? Eeehh... "Radiation" from the displays? Aren't you guys protected with those "shields" and ever-evolving technology yet? Anything else? Doubtfully anyone from the street can quickly answer.
Risks of the popular and long-standing professions are known and familiar, but what do laymen think about that ugly job programmers have? Eeehh... "Radiation" from the displays? Aren't you guys protected with those "shields" and ever-evolving technology yet? Anything else? Doubtfully anyone from the street can quickly answer.
As you may or may not know, Russia is the country where people walk white bears within city limits and drive monstrous cars such as "Zhiguli" and "Zaporozhets". The most dreaded vehicles of them all, though, are KAMAZ trucks well-known for winning the Dakar cross-country rally. Much like white bears, KAMAZ vehicles inhabit not only city limits, but also range beyond city suburbs. Car Driver's Guide To KAMAZ Galaxy has this to say: "Out in the Great Unknown, in winter mute, if you confront a KAMAZ, remember that your most powerful weapon against it is a shovel."
Big Bosses are spending billions on bloatware. Their ability to do so is a sign of undeniable success, like buying cigars 100$ apiece. Or hiring crowds of useless but flashy top-managers, struggling to buy some of those cigars some day. The crowd makes Big Bosses happy and proud of themselves. Anyway, all that cash spent on the incompetent and useless will be recuperated by more and more meticulous exploitation of the lower-level personnel. Sure.
Here comes ClearCase, the king of bloatware...
Here comes ClearCase, the king of bloatware...
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