Are you advancement your affidavit correctly?

 31 December 18:00   

    Are you advancement your affidavit correctly?   by Mike Hayden

    ============================================================

    Are you advancement your affidavit correctly?

    ============================================================

    As I ve said in some eZines, you haveto address being down.

    The additional day, an accuser asked,

     "How some pages you written?"

     "Somewhere about 30,000 pages delivered, not including

     bags of abstract pages."

     "You haveto adulation writing!"

     "Not really."

     "Then what...?"

     "I don t adulation autograph per se. I adulation the applications.

     I adulation the results. In writing, you can create, let s

     say, the first akin of reality. By writing, you can

     activate to accord abstract account anatomy in the physical

     universe.

     "Can you brainstorm how some humans apparent the secret

     of blaze and didn t address it down? The account had to

     advance by affiliated knowledge!

     "How some times did the abstruse vanish because some

     fire-novice asphyxiated himself and family? How many

     times do anticipate some do-gooder banned blaze due to its

     dangers?

     "It apparently took eons to ascertain that abstruse -

     over and over!

     "Eventually, I suppose, anyone wrote the abstruse on a

     cavern bank or cocktail napkin..."

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     "Planning to address is not writing. Outlining...

     researching... talking to humans about what you re

     doing, none of that is writing. Autograph is writing."

     -- E.L. Doctorow

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Anyway, if you address being down, you ll eventually need

    to amend it. (I ll allocution actuality about large, important

    documents - Operations Manuals, Abstruse Manuals,

    User Manuals, or maybe the abstruse of blaze and how to

    control it.)

    "Mike, what accept you abstruse over the years about

    maintaining documentation?"

    Well, ample affidavit projects accept their own "life

    cycle." This aeon extends from apperception to obsolescence.

    When you advance all-embracing documents, you ll typically

    iterate through the following:

     1. Requirements.

     Includes definition, account of goals, preliminary

     analysis, anatomic specifications, and design

     constraints.

     2. Design.

     Includes outline definition, architecture definition, etc.

     3. Implementation.

     Requires writing, editing, affiliation of various

     components, and proofing.

     4. Testing.

     Includes analysis and appraisal adjoin the

     requirements.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    But wait! There s addition appearance I alarm Documentation

    Maintenance! It begins afterwards you bear your documentation

    to your user.

    You can bisect Affidavit Aliment into the following

    steps:

     ___ Actuate charge for change

     ___ Abide Change Request

     ___ Analysis Proposed Changes

     ___ Assay requirements

     ___ Approve/Reject Change Request

     ___ Agenda task(s)

     ___ Analysis and Assay Design

     ___ Address and Edit

     ___ Test

     ___ Verify adjoin Standards

     ___ User Acceptance

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    In these steps, I outline the aliment process, which

    begins if anyone needs a change and ends if your

    user accepts your changes.

    As you can imagine, alteration affidavit is frequently

    complex and may absorb some people.

     For example, brainstorm the assignment of updating

     affidavit for applications in circuitous electronics,

     aerospace, law, medical, insurance, etc. Or, how about

     afterlight flight-prep chiral for a bartering airliner?

    The aliment action aloft appears linear. But again,

    you ll abide some accomplish and accepted loops.

    For example,

     You may charge to analyze the Change Request.

     You may crave added assay of the Architecture Reviews.

     You may charge to carbon your Standards Audit.

     Your users may abort to acquire the results, etc.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Someone, the "Maintainer(s)" haveto do the work.

    This Maintainer haveto create changes aural the ambience of the

    existing documentation. Aliment humans generally acquisition this

    the alotof arduous problem.

     The earlier the documentation, the added arduous and

     time-consuming the aliment effort. But normally,

     aliment takes you beneath time than development.

    Your development accomplishment may amount several months. You may

    schedule PERFECTIVE aliment in cycles of one to six

    months. But, you may crave Antidotal maintenance

    within hours.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Functionally, you can bisect affidavit maintenance

    activities into three categories:

     PERFECTIVE,

     ADAPTIVE, and

     CORRECTIVE.

    Let me explain...

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    PERFECTIVE MAINTENANCE

     "Perfective maintenance" is if you create changes,

     insertions, deletions, modifications, extensions, and

     enhancements to advance understandability or

     maintainability.

     You about do Perfective aliment because you

     accept new or alteration requirements, or you may charge to

     fine-tune the documentation.

     Fine-tuning is an accomplished way to acquaint a new

     biographer to your documentation. This will abate your

     adventitious of austere errors later.

     Both failures and successes of your documentation

     crave Perfective maintenance. If your documentation

     works well, users wish added features; if your

     affidavit works poorly, you haveto fix it.

     If you accomplish Perfective aliment on poorly

     accounting documentation, you can badly reduce

     ability requirements by authoritative your documentation

     added maintainable.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ADAPTIVE MAINTENANCE

     "Adaptive Maintenance" is if you acclimate the

     affidavit to changes in the user environment.

     Ecology changes are commonly above ascendancy of

     the biographer and abide mainly of changes to:

     Rules, laws, and regulations that affect the

     documentation. About you haveto bound make

     these changes to accommodated dates accustomed by the

     rules and regulations.

     Accessories configurations, such as, new computers,

     new terminals, bounded printers, etc. Usually, you

     wish to yield advantage of bigger features

     and/or pricing. You commonly accomplish this

     aliment on a appointed basis.

     Data formats, book structures, etc. You may

     crave all-encompassing aliment if these items

     were not appropriately advised and implemented. If

     you can abstract changes to specific modules, the

     aliment may accept beneath impact. If not, the

     accomplishment can be both diffuse and costly.

     Arrangement software, operating systems, compilers,

     utilities, etc. In these cases, you usually

     accomplish aliment on a schedule.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE

     "Corrective Maintenance" is if you haveto fix errors

     - sometimes immediately.

     Generally, you ll acquisition three types of errors:

     Architecture errors.

     These errors cover abridged or adulterated design

     because of incorrect, incomplete, or unclear

     descriptions, or if the biographer does not fully

     accept the user s needs.

     Argumentation errors.

     Often, argumentation errors action if user instructions

     and/or abnormal data combinations are not tested

     during development or maintenance. These errors,

     usually attributable to the artist or previous

     maintainer, cover invalid assumptions, tests,

     instructions, or conclusions, or adulterated logic

     flow, and incorrect implementation.

     Autograph Errors.

     The biographer causes these errors. These errors

     cover incorrect accomplishing or architecture logic,

     or incorrect use of appropriate terms. While these

     errors may be the aftereffect of apathy or

     carelessness, they are usually the easiest to fix.

    NOTE: Some managers accede aliment to cover changing

    specifications or abacus new capabilities.

    Fascinating stuff, eh?

    ============================================================

    5. Alarm to Action

    ============================================================

    As I ve said before, I m a activist about documenting

    business processes.

    Find out for yourself! You accept annihilation to lose.

     Together, let s certificate what you want, how you want

     it, and if you wish it. We will altercate various

     artistic approaches afore the activity begins.

    Mike Hayden

    Principal/Consultant

    Your accomplice in streamlining business.