Hi all, I thought this was an interesting topic, and I wanted to jump in as well.
I see three possible issues, listed from easiest to hardest to solve: 1. Despite your efforts, the doc doesn't meet the needs of the field engineers. As others have pointed out, your text can be verbose. Are these files and emails to the point, with clear instructions in their simplest form? I'm talking about bulleted or numbered lists with short one or two line items. Or maybe it's a timing issue: they don't have the info once they make it to the customer site. Is the file easy to find in the installed updates? Can you give them the information in a popup somehow (either when they obtain the update or when they install it)? Could you put it on a website (internal or external, depending on the need) that everyone learns to use as the central source of info? Ask the engineers in question what would help them. 2. There is a lack of cooperation, not due to the docs themselves. Different groups competing internally for the attention of others is a universal problem. I've see notices posted above the microwave/coffee machine in the break room. I've seen teams offer food at meetings, and $10 or $20 gift cards to people who contribute to a cross-team project. It's sad that this sort of incentive is necessary, but that's what some people respond to. 3. There is a mismatch in the corporate culture. You seem victimized by their "barbs" yet you don't say if management is involved. If I thought I was providing the information to someone, and they pretend not to have it and then blame me for not providing it, I would bring it up with my manager. You have to take the emotion out of it and try to resolve the issue, appealing to the good of the company if necessary. Perhaps with managers as facilitators, you can communicate better with the engineers to reach a solution though 1 or 2 above. It seems you're located in India, and I don't know how office politics are different from the US, but I know I'd be frustrated with and stand up to uncooperative co-workers. I don't know what the job market is like their either, but people have changed companies for situations like this as well. You just have to be sure it's not something you can fix yourself first, otherwise the problem might show up again somewhere else. Best of luck, Andy akass at jaspersoft.com ----- Original Message ----- > Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 14:02:29 +0530 (IST) > From: Garnier Garnier <garnier_framescript at yahoo.co.in> > Subject: Re: Motivating end users to read the manual > > Hello to all who responded to my query, > > Thanks for the responses. It is sincerely appreciated. I will sincerely > explore the suggestions. > > Our documentation (User and Reference Manuals) are made available as > part of the installation in html (Webworks help) and pdf format. No > print format. The User/Reference Manuals include ?What?s New in the > Release? section with the relevant hyper links to User/Reference > Manuals for details. The ?Requirements? are part of the Installation > Guide which is made available as an external file as well as part of > the installation. The readme.txt that accompanies the installer > lists all the book names and its contents in brief. > > The training materials are made available to the customers at a cost > (who buy the tool). This includes the labs with screen shots (step > wise instructions) plus presentations plus videos. The changes made > in the training material is provided as ?Readme, I?m new.txt?. I > also send mails to the field engineers about the changes and asking > them to exercise the new features. But unfortunately they never > respond. For all the major changes the engineers are given training > through Webinars, which again most of the time is poorly attended. > As mentioned earlier, they are familiar with the tool so ignore the > trainings and the documentation. But there are certain details that > they need to know before going to the client site for training. At > that time their only focus is to train and ensure that everything > is running fine. When they are stuck with the new/modified features > they aim the barbsJ. It is probably the lack of time and the > confidence that ?they know everything so do not need to read? is > causing this issue. Not sure. > > As already mentioned the new comers are anyway made to go through > the training to get hands on experience of the product before they > actually get down to coding. > > As someone suggested ?how about bribing and violence?. Fortunately > or unfortunately its not my cup of tea. I was hired to work so let > me continue to do so. > > We are a very small company so almost everybody is busy with their > respective projects. It is not always possible to have training > sessions. Never thought about inserting offers. > > B/R, > Garnier
