Comments on: Your publishing model is broken

By: WriterRiver.com

WriterRiver.com — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:08:56 +0000

Your publishing model is broken…

having looked long and hard at the information my team produce, I’m increasingly finding that a lot of it can be published instantly and, given that most computer/internet literate people are used to demanding information immediately (thanks Google!)…

By: Sita Bhatt

Sita Bhatt — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:07:32 +0000

Sure, Gordon, it was clear when i said “as soon as the feature is ready”. This means, one would need to ensure that the software release for the feature is done.
Thanks for clarifying.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:57:24 +0000

I agree–I don’t like having to wait for production launches for updated documentation to go out. With the model I’m working in, it’s easy because it gets rolled out with the production build, but that also limits how often I can release the information. I’m pretty much at the mercy of the release schedule. I’ve started working on ways to change that, but I need a solution before I go to project management and customers and point out the problem.

By: Gordon McLean

Gordon McLean — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:49:43 +0000

Sita - I think you need to be careful here. You say “as soon as the feature is ready”, which implies both a software and documentation release which, if your company can manage that, is perfectly acceptable.

But I am not advocating that feature specific documentation is shipped before the feature itself. Rather that any information that is not reliant on new features, can be published at any point. Apologies if I didn’t make that clear enough.

By: Sita Bhatt

Sita Bhatt — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:30:53 +0000

Completely agree! I feel the technical content process needs to have shorter turnaround time. This seems to be a very valid approach - to publish as soon as the feature is ready, rather than wait till a mainline release.