Supporting package software documentation: options for user services groups

摘要

In this presentation, I wish only to encourage a thoughtful use of software package documentation by User Service Groups (hereafter USGs). I do not wish to give specific advice. USGs vary enormously in many ways, including size, available resources, span of control, and types of software supported. What is good advice for one is bound to be bad advice for several others. After hearing about the aims of package documentation and the options for implementing them in an overall USG strategy, a given USG staff may well decide to make no changes at all in its current treatment of software documentation packages. Hopefully, though, this will be because of a conscious decision to make no changes in spite of a knowledge of other options, and not because of an unexamined commitment to a default position. With this disclaimer out of the way, let's turn to our topic.

To the degree that User Services Groups are involved in technology transfer, they have an inherent interest in three general areas ofthe technology transfer enterprise:

education,

troubleshooting, and

consulting.

Software package documentation has now evolved to the point where it routinely addresses these three areas, with clear benefits for organizations which have USGs. To make best use of software documentation, however, it is helpful to remember that different documentation components have different aims, and that a range of options exists for using each component in a USG environment. An awareness of these points can assist USGs in deciding which options best fit their particular circumstances.

Software package components: In general, products which purport to be "end-user" software will usually include three components in their documentation which need ongoing management:

a tutorial,

a "Help Key", and

printed detail documentation.