RE: Documenation (WAS RE: Hershey's)

One of my favorite quotes:

"Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone 
who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and certain, 
must be exceedingly simple minded."

--Plato

On Wednesday, November 03, 1999 09:39, Alan Campin 
[SMTP:Alan.Campin@caselogic.com] wrote:
> My universal experience.
>
> I once was required to spend 3 months documenting an entire system. 
Finished
> it all. Put it in a binder like they use in auto parts store and put it 
next
> to the computer. Then every single day the user that was so hot to have 
it
> done would come to me and ask me how something worked and I would say, 
"Did
> you check the documentation" and everyday I would he would say, "Never 
mind
> that, just tell me what I want to know". Finally just started to tell him 
to
> check the documentation and he grabbed me one day and demanded I tell 
him.
> We almost got into a fist fight. So much for documentation.
>
> From: Jim Langston [mailto:jlangston@conexfreight.com]
>
> SOME people don't read the manual?  In my experience, 99.44% of the
> people
> don't read the manual.
>
> I had a manager keep asking me questions on a system.  I got together
> all the
> documentation on it, put it in a nice binder, and gave it to her.  She
> still asked
> me questions that I knew were in the docs I gave her (and the docs
> weren't
> even that thick).  I asked her if she read the docs I gave her, she
> hadn't gotten
> around to it.  6 months later she still hadn't gotten around to it, nor
> anyone in
> her department who I showed all of them where the docs were.
>
> A computer guru in the real world is the person who reads the docs.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jim Langston
>
>
> > <SNIP>
>
> > Problems can arise from many factors such as:  sales says something
> like "The
> > AS/400 runs itself, you don't need IS people!"; the consultants are
> put on a job
> > with little or no training on a product or sometimes the platform;
> failure of
> > users to get behind an implementation; and I also believe that some
> people don't
> > read the manual.
>
> <SNIP>
>
>
>
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