atw: Re: Report from a parallel universe - Manuals to cherish
- From: Bob Trussler <bob.trussler@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:05:55 +1000
Warren,
A system designer and the author of a high level design, that I had edited
and pubished online, wanted to print it in a format that the developers and
analysts would 'cherish'.
'You want what???'
'If we give them a document in the usual crappy white two-ring binder, they
will put it on their shelves, forget about it, after some use it starts to
fall apart, pages fall out, then they will trash it in the next office
move. But if it looks good, is nicely bound, has a stylish cover, then it
becomes something to cherish.'
We printed it with a card cover and a binding rather like a paperback book.
The title on the cover was 'nice and stylish' (whatever that means).
It was well received.
Being a record of a system's high level design, there was very little
change.
About five years later, I was back at that department and wanted some
information that I knew was in that doc. I wandered into the developer's
area and looked around. Most of the bookshelves still had this document. A
young developer who was new to the area offered help. I asked to read his
copy of the doc. He started to tell me what a great doc it was, how he
liked (cherished) it, and so on. The painful part was not laughing, made
worse by several older developers having a chuckle.
I contacted the original author and told him that his work and design was
still being cherished.
"Of course it is!"
Bob Trussler
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