managing expectations and being realistic

Hi :slight_smile:
This team consistently does far more work than most other Documentation
Teams i've seen in almost any other project. MS Office only manages 1 set
in 3-4 years.

Looking down the list of Published Guides we can see that all guides (apart
from 2) have had at least 1 completed version in the 4.x.x line. GS has
had 2. Writer is over half-way through it's 2nd.

It's only the Base Handbook that hasn't had any and frankly i'm impressed
that there is one at all. It would be nice to get a new one but it might
be better to skip several branches and get the one that covers the newer
back-end.

It seems a good policy to deliberately skip at least 1 branch, maybe 2.
Lets say each Guide can skip 2 branches quite comfortably. That way there
is under half the guides to do each time.

That seems a much more realistic goal to me and means you can feel
justifiably chuffed with the amazing amount of work that you do rather than
feeling bad about not having achieved unrealistic targets.

So lets say that since the Draw Guide already has a 4.1.x branch "done and
dusted " that it does not need a 4.2.x and probably not a 4.3.x either.
Any changes or additional functionality can be pieced together by users if
they can't figure it out. The existing Guide gives plenty of help for
people to understand how Draw works so people should be able to figure out
how other functionality fits in and what the over-all ways of thinking
are.

The Math Guide's latest was the 4.0.x so that could probably use a 4.3.x.

It might be really good to finish off the Writer's 4.2.x since it's over
halfway done already. Or would it be easier to move straight to a 4.3.x?
or just leave it as is and leave it until the 4.4.x and then try to do a
complete guide for that branch?

If we do decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch then
skipping the GS makes a lot of sense. Do we really need a 4.3.x for the
GS? I think most people are going to find that the existing 4.2.x GS Guide
is more than enough.

If we set a policy then new people can be guided to work on Guides that fit
into that policy. Obviously if they have strong reasons for going outside
policy then they can try that and it would be very positive but many people
starting here want to be given tasks so that they can become familiar with
the process and feel like part of a team.

If we decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch for ALL guides
then for the 4.3.x branch we would need;
Writer, Calc, Math, Draw and maybe Base-Handbook
for the 4.4.x we would need;
GS, Impress,

If we choose to skip 2 branches for each guide, except for the GS and maybe
Writer then we 'only' need a 4.3.x for;
Writer, Math and maybe the Base handbook
For the 4.4.x we would need;
GS, maybe Writer, Calc, Draw.

So skipping 2 branches for all but the GS and Writer would make it smoother
and more manageable. It'd mean that when the Base Handbook needs to be
done that there are not so many other distractions. Skipping only 1 branch
but for all guides would mean more hard-work soonest but would leave more
room for other types of documentation in the 4.4.x phase.

So what do people think? Should we deliberately set a policy of not doing
a full set for each release (since that is proving impossible anyway)? If
so should the team aim to do half or about a third of the guides each
time?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hello Tom

Disagree with you about the Draw Guide. There will be a guide for Version
4.3 because of one major addition to LO - the Sidebar. This does change the
way you operate Draw. Will be tackling the Draw Guide after I have completed
the last two chapters of the Impress Guide.

Regards

PeterS

Having a "policy" is all very well, but really it's up to the people
who do the work. For example, if no one will do the Calc Guide, it
doesn't get done. No policy will change that. This is why some guides
were updated to 4.0, but others not until 4.1: no one available to do
them.

For now, Writer Guide 4.2 will be finished; Draw Guide will be done
for 4.3; GS will skip 4.3 and go to 4.4 unless someone commits to an
update sooner. The others: who knows? Will someone do Calc or Math?

--Jean

Hi :slight_smile:
If/when new people join the group how do they know what to start on? What
do we tell them?

If we could say that a specific guide is "next in line to be updated" then
they could just start on that straight-away, or they could then say that
they would prefer to work on something else.

At the moment people just stand around waiting for them to guess what might
be good.

Also it might be easier to recruit new people for the team by saying that
some specific guide needs work.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hello all,

I started integrating Hazel's translations of the German Base 4.2 Handbook into the English 3.5 about a week ago. Chapter 2 is just about ready to go; realistically, about a chapter a week is the rate at which I can work on this(but see below.)

I think it'd be worthwhile for me to keep working on that, even though the German 4.3 handbook is out now. The changes are cumulative, and text rarely gets deleted, so everything that's in 4.2 is probably going to be in 4.3. (I can do a quick comparison of the German 4.2 and 4.3 to confirm that.)

As I said, about a chapter a week is what I can do, and even that's optimistic. But if the team really wants to make a push to get all the manuals updated to the current version, I can rearrange some commitments and make this more of a priority. Let me know.

Alan

Hi Alan,

that's great news that you are working on the Base handbook.

Please don't feel rushed and do everything in your own time. You have a
real life and that is more important. So keep some extra time for your
family. :slight_smile:

Sigrid