HOW POOR IN-HOUSE USER DOCUMENTS COST YOU TWO TIMES & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
OVERVIEW
Numerous organizations produce internal tools or modify commercially-available tools for their own usage. These tools should get documented so they serve to others in the company.
If this paperwork is not created or is improperly written, it costs you twice:
* The very first cost (credited to any bad user document) is the cost of answering the Users' concerns (technical support).
* The 2nd expense, arises from the lost time of your employees trying to understand the poor User Document.
Mental costs likewise impact both the external and the in-house User.
THE FIRST COST: TECHNICAL SUPPORT
This is the expense you sustain whenever you produce poor (or no) User Documents. It arises for any User when he/she requires technical support. For external Users, the cost is your technical support staff, toll-free telephone lines, and so on
. For internal Users the expense is the time spent by the designer or modifier of the tool to address the concerns of his/her fellow worker. This is an expensive technical assistance expense ... these individuals are generally paid more than your technical support staff. Hence this very first cost is even greater for poor internal documentation than for substandard documentation released to the general public.
THE SECOND COST: USERS' TIME AND RESOURCES
For Users outside your business, the second expense is assumed by the Users themselves or their companies. These confused Users are expending their business's time: the time lost trying to get the product to work, and the time invested dealing with your technical assistance.
For your internal Users, this cost is borne by your business. It is your employee-- on your time-- that is wasting your company resources attempting to use an arcane product or file. Here is where your deficient internal documentation expenses you two times.
MENTAL COSTS AFFECT ALL READERS
In addition to these time and monetary costs, there are the psychological expenses wreaked by bad User Documentation.
For frustrated Users outside your company, your poor paperwork leads to an unfavorable perception of your business and its products. This may lead to loss of business.
For users inside your company, the psychological expense is decreased staff member spirits, as evidenced from these possible declarations:
* Our company produced this junk?
* These individuals are not a sharp as I thought they were.
* If other employees can produce this complicated stuff, then I can operate at that exact same level.
Hence the ill will outside your business can cost you future sales; the ill will inside your company can cost in reduced staff member spirits.
SOLUTION: INFORMAL REVIEWS
As soon as somebody writes a User Document for an internal tool, that document ought to be informally reviewed.
SELF-REVIEW
The author can perform the first evaluation on his/her own.
Use your word processing program's spelling checker to fix typical mistakes. You can use the word processor's grammar checker, however most of these are inaccurate.
Before doing this evaluation, let the file sit for a day or 2. This will assist you forget what you suggested in your uncertain writing. When you do the review and you find yourself asking "what did I imply here?" you will have discovered a location in the document that requires modification.
When doing the evaluation, envision you are user of the tool and reader of the file. Imagine the jobs that privatewriting.us/research-papers/ the tool user wishes to do. Does the document make it possible for the Reader to discover what he/she needs? Is the composing accurate (correctly describes the tool), clear, and finish? Make the modifications that would improve the document.
EXTERNAL REVIEW
Then, if possible, utilize an external customer (inside your company). To do this, the author must:
1. Find a potential User of the tool. This must be somebody who is not currently familiar with the tool, and as comparable to the target audience of the tool as affordable.
Have that reviewer use the document to direct him/her in usage of the tool. Get remarks on the file.
* Does the document tell you what you need to know?
* Is it simple to find what you need in the file?
* Does the file address your questions? If not, what concerns are unanswered?
* Is the file simple to follow? If not, where are the problem locations?
3. The writer ought to make changes as necessary.
If you can not perform this "semiformal" review, then get anybody aside from yourself to merely check out the file, and make suggestions for improvement.
CARE
Make certain that the evaluation process does not become an inhibition to those composing User Documentation for internal Users. Tension a cooperative-- not adversarial-- mechanism whose outcome is quality work. Do not attempt to create the best User Document.
