Comments on: Did you expect them to just KNOW how to do it?

By: Wes Trochlil

Wes Trochlil — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:05:20 +0000

In reply to David Janes. David, good points. But clearly faulting to the side of "too much information" is better than what I'm seeing, which is little or no information.

By: Wes Trochlil

Wes Trochlil — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:04:37 +0000

In reply to Michael Stein. Michael, that would be hilarious if it weren't so sad.

By: David Janes

David Janes — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:47:34 +0000

It can be hard to document exactly what you do, when you have no idea of the base level of computer knowledge of the reader. If you make it too detailed, you lose people who “know what they are doing” and start to try to anticipate what the document will say (I plead guilty in this regard) but if it is not detailed enough, “it doesn’t make sense” and people muddle through as you described.

Of course, the classic fix for this in the factory system was the unions. Apprentices Did What They Were Told and did not advance until longer term employees were satisfied with their performance. In the modern economy you a pretty much expected to hit the ground running without any period of apprenticeship to learn your craft.

By: Michael Stein

Michael Stein — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:29:06 +0000

Very true. We once did a two day workshop with a client to help them develop a manual that combined their internal procedures with the workings of their software into an integrated new staff training. When we were done the prevailing view was “well this is all well and good but its not realistic that we will give a new hire more than a 30 minute orientation before we turn them loose on the software.”