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- Establish documentation timetables as offsets to Release Dates, for each deliverable or assignment
- Begin user documentation
- Sketch outlines: develop in tandem once specs 50% complete
- Sketch content: Spec completion/signoff + 1 week
- Drafting content: in tandem with code/development and iterative code reviews; should be able to complete outline and some content
- Draft #1 user Documentation: within 2 weeks of sprint release for coded feature
- Draft #2 user documentation: Within 2 weeks after release of final code for features, or Release overall
- Format Review copies due: Draft #2 date + 2weeks (time consuming)
- Initial QA Review due: Format Review Date + 1 week
- Final due: Initial QA date + 2 weeks
- Publish due: Final date + 1-2 weeks
- Begin user documentation
- Add 10% + contingency to Draft #2/Format Review dates (ie, some code won't won’t be completed until just before release)
- Create Documentation calendar for each Release, with above offsets for global release
- Publish within 2-10 weeks of Release date (TBD with PM, depending on type of release, complexity, available resources)
- Coordinate schedule with Sprint Releases, and most current Milestone or Product Release schedules
- what are expectations for support, technical or user documentation:
- Snapshots: code only iterative/timely releases (biweekly sprints or future iterations, like 1.1, 1.1.1 etc)
- Milestone Releases: like OLE 0.3, 0.6, 0.8?
- Product Releases: like OLE 1.0, OLE 1.5, OLE 2.0 etc
- what are expectations for support, technical or user documentation:
- Monitor final code-promotion timetable to DEMO environment to determine when code for release is locked, and also when environments might be down
- Publish and communicate when servers are offline (maintenance, upgrades, refreshes, code promotions) and share with Writers- as they cannot access during those times for Screen Captures, etc.
- Suggestion: While we may wish to maintain separate KIS groups/lists/emails for SME Teams, vs Testers Team, vs User Documentation Team, why not build a distribution-only list for system outages or whenever DEV, TST, or DEMO go up/down? Could include SME team analysts, FC leads, TC leads, writers/User doc leads etc-- to convey system messages?
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- Garner support and SMEs via Tiger/SME Teams or thru Functional Council as additional resources for initial efforts
- Identify documentation lead per module
- Identify documentation team per module- existing, past, or current features (ideally a rep from each spec team, or testers)
- Like "testers"“testers”, add documentation rep as assignment to each spec handoff, and begin integrating into code review meetings with SME teams
- Regular meetings and training
- Allow each module to have own meetings, organization, manage assignment
- Monthly meetings at beginning of release for "touch base" “touch base” with all writers/all modules
- Bi-weekly documentation meetings (across all modules, and leads) in 1 month before release, and 2 months after release up to publishing date
- Create sandbox for shared documents (schedules, training material, templates, and sandboxes for each module's module’s user documentation drafts)
- Training (how to, templates, best practices, checklists)
V. Training
- Don't Don’t leave to last minute!
- Solicit help from other SMEs & manage mini writing assignments where helpful!
- Document Templates
- Publish format templates to sandbox
- Publish plain text with outline headings to sandbox
- Writers: plain text, and import to templates?
- Documentation Checklist: Content (bugs, fixes, new code, new screenshots, etc)
- Documentation Checklist: QA (overall)
- Documentation Checklist (Nora): Publishing
- Common glossary for documentation usage:
- 3rd person/you vs generic user, etc.
- User vs Staff vs. Operator (libraries have indicated their vernacular for "user" means patrons of library/users of library public catalog
- Other, esp OLE -defined terms and use of Document Store/DocStore; OLE Instance; OLE Holding vs Source Holding
- Links and usage of common elements documentation- do not include in every user guide, but provide hyperlinks to common/shared Glossary, Rice terms, Edoc elements, common actions/buttons, etc.
- Use of Sandbox, doc versioning, Track Changes
- Gliffy Sandbox: open-source modeling tool (like Visio!) for sharing and creating workflows, dataflows, or org chart models. Checkc out the OLE Gliffy Sandbox Instructions
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