Re: Useful Manuals

These days a lot of software links to features that are not
specifically application related. Examples include Online Chat with a
Help Desk, and Check for Updates. For a GUI I'd recommend a standard
button (toolbar/menu, etc) that allows the user to jump to a web form
where they can lookup and contribute to tips on a specific window/form
or procedure. Using AccuTerm (wIntegrate?) you can easily launch
browser windows from a green screen too.

A forum allows for discussion, but isn't very good for finding
content, as anyone who has searched for info in CDP will attest.
Material like this needs to be audited for later consumption - you
don't want people doing data entry to waste time searching through
forum commentary. For forum discussions and for the feature above, I
recommend someone with app knowledge should be assigned to summarize
inquiries which is then provided in both standard docs and the online
help to which someone would later jump before posting a forum inquiry.

The process might be like this:
- User clicks button and jumps to more help on the current screen.
- When the help is exhausted they can send a note to Support or post
to a company/app-specific forum.
- When the issue is resolved or more info is available, the first help
screen gets updated. A link could be posted back to the forum for
related questions, but this will break if/when the forum changes.

With a central repository of inquiries and solutions, both the IT
staff and developers can see what problems people are having, and they
can proactively make product and process improvements. This is good
for end-user morale too because they get changes by asking questions.
As we see here and elsewhere, most people have no problem asking
questions but they are often very reticent to request changes. Seeing
their feedback incorporated into the product makes users feel like
they are contributing, which helps to deal with the "us and them"
relationship often present between users and IT. I'm not saying this
should replace a support desk but that it's another resource which
allows everyone to work better.

BTW, these same features should be available for the DBMS as well as
in applications. It would be easy to add a web service to any DBMS
where developers can ask questions of their Support provider (VAR or
DBMS provider) simply by typing HELP followed by a question. This
stuff isn't rocket science but so far no one doing it. *sigh*

I can help to implement these processes if anyone is interested.
Stay tuned for the Nebula Remote Support Environment which will have
this feature - and much more...

TG@ removethisNebula-RnD.com

"Excalibur" wrote:

Hi
I would appreciate comments from developers , analysts et al on the best
method of setting up manuals.
We have produced heaps over the years using everything from Wordstar, Word,
Jet to Pick Items. Invariably they act as a safety blanket for management
who do not actually use the system and sometimes they even make a sale look
more likely.

However we design the screens to contain 95% of the info required to
complete a job so operators rarely use them. What we realised a long time
ago is that everyone uses a package differently and the sensible ones
incorporate specific decisions in their QA manual. The rest re-invent the
wheel every time an operator leaves. In fact some even dream up incredible
scenarios such as printing the screen with the order and credit card details
and manually doing the charge. This instead of installing the bank's new
software update and continuing to use our automatic facility which does it
in seconds. Yes there are hundreds of entries required, and yes he knew how
to run the software as he had done so for years and we only found out when
he was fired.

What is needed is a "How do I Fix This" section that would be best served by
being added to by the operator fixing the issue. One simply cannot dream up
all the ways that a person will dream up to pull the gearstick out by the
roots. I am considering many ways ,PDF could be possible with amendments
from Word but this requires knowledge that operators do not necessarily
possess. I thought of blogs, perhaps Tony or Dawn have knowledge of easy
and cheap packages to do this. I would want to lock our bit and allow
additions at will.

This would also have the advantage that we could occasionally check what
they were up to.

Thanks in advance
Peter McMurray



.