“In preparing for battle, I have found that plans are useless,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “But planning is indispensable.”
Planning is also indispensable when it comes to writing projects, though the plans themselves can and will change, often with great regularity.
It can be frustrating to develop and keep up with a constantly changing documentation plan. Yet the planning effort, if not the plan itself, can be indispensable for three reasons.
First, you identify potential issues and pitfalls. These can include:
- Project delay or cancellation.
- Key personnel leave the project team, or are unavailable in a timely fashion.
- New personnel join the project team and must get up to speed.
- Product or service development issues that could cause delays.
- Documentation tool problems, such as a crashed PC.
- Other projects take priority.
Whatever the potential issues and pitfalls are, identifying them is the first step towards addressing them.
Second, you clarify expectations. Writing, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone has their own idea of what qualifies as good—or bad—writing.
- Who is the “ideal reader” for this document?
- What will the “ideal reader” learn, or be able to do, as a result of reading your document?
- What kind of document will this be?
- What content will be covered in this document?
- How long will it take to produce this document?
- How will this document be distributed? Is anything in it meant to be proprietary or restricted?
An architect creates a blueprint before starting to build a house. A pilot files a flight plan before taking off to his or her destination. In this spirit, writers use documentation plans to go beyond the content outline and cover as many related details as possible.
Third, you identify and assign responsibilities. The popular image of a writer is someone sitting, alone, at the keyboard, in tune with Divine Inspiration. But the fact is, for a particular piece of writing to be useful to the reader, others must be involved.
In addition to the author (or more than one author), the effort can include subject matter experts, editors, proofreaders, indexers, designers, production coordinators, and art coordinators.
Because these individuals are consulted during the document planning process, everyone involved can make plans and avoid unnecessary surprises as the project develops.
For managers and peers, a plan provides evidence that the documentation side of the project has been thought through and a strategy exists to produce the appropriate documentation by the deadline.
If it sounds like a documentation plan is at least a CYA (cover you’re a**) document, you’d be right. But as explained here, it’s more than that.
