TrainUsersFirst

Last edit July 8, 2002

Documentation-procrastination technique:

TrainUsersFirst. Train at least one user before writing any documentation for a piece of software. While training that user, develop a one-page cheat sheet (either paper or Wiki). Repeat process for 2nd, 3rd, 4th users, etc., until you either:

Find a user willing to write documentation for the software.
Have enough knowledgeable users that they support each other.
Have enough cheat sheets that producing documentation is more about editing than writing.
Discover your software is not usable enough yet to distribute.
Realize you can't write intelligible documentation so users are just out of luck (AndyPierce)

-- SteveHowell

This is a good idea for documentation. But there have been cases where the users were trained before anysoftware was created. This is generally not a good idea, although it can be a good mental exercise for generating stories.