Ah, yes. That refers to normal instructions, usually by corporations that charge you obscene amounts of money to send you gibberish. But it is possible to write instructions that people can follow. And if you get mgmt to agree, you can require people read your instructions. "Do this, or your email will stop working. No, I'm not kidding." :) It can be similar to pulling teeth to get them trained well, but then they can solve problems on their own, freeing you to solve the difficult and interesting problems, rather than spending all of your time configuring printers and email clients.
Of course, this all depends on the quality of your documentation... On 2007 May 22 (Tue) at 16:08:10 -0600 (-0600), Bob Beck wrote: :<arlo guthrie> : :... : We walked in, sat down, Obie brought up the the help desk page with :the twenty seven 800 x 600 colour glossy screenshots with circles and :arrows and a paragraph below each one explaining what each one was to :be used to show Windows users what to do. Luser came in and said "My :mail's broke", We all looked up, and Obie turned his monitor with the :twenty seven 800x600 colour glossy screenshots, and the luser walked :over with his laptop and sat down in front of Obie. Obie looked at the :laptop and proceeded to talk to the luser for the better part of 30 :minutes then looked at the luser, then looked at the twenty seven :800x600 colour glossy pictures, then looked at the luser and began to :cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of :American mouth breathing Windows luser, and there wasn't nothing he :could do about it, and the luser wasn't going to look at the 27 :800x600 colour glossy screenshots with the circles and arrows and a :paragraph on the back of each one showing Windows users what to do. :And we was reprimanded for having a system that was so darned :difficult to use and so unhelpful, and told to litter the site with :more flash.. : :But that's not what I came to tell you about... :.. : :</arlo guthrie> : :Sorry, couldn't resist... http://helpdesk.ualberta.ca/email :) : : -Bob : : :* Peter Hessler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2007-05-22 15:43]: :> Write them step by step instructions, with screenshots for the client :> they use. Tell them they have 30 days (for example), remind them at 15 :> and the day before. :> :> I've done the above at several work sites (400ish and 50ish), and once :> management was on board, it was very simple. A tiny bit of work now, to :> solve many problems tomorrow. :> : -- A reactionary is a man whose political opinions always manage to keep up with yesterday.
