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Does your documentation service provider have to work at your facilities? Should you and your contractor both be located within the same area, or is this rather unimportant when compared to other criteria?
Fixed dates for inquiry and testing
The question how often your documentation service provider should work at your facilities largely depends on the type of product. On the one hand, the presence eases communication and testing, but on the other hand you also have to provide a suitable workplace and testing environment, and you must schedule some extra time to answer questions. Often, there are only a few working prototypes at all, and it is difficult to get one.
For this reason it makes sense to agree on specific dates when your contractor visits for research. In advance, your contractor should also use all written materials available for input, such as spec sheets, notes from developers, presentations, sales brochures, etc. This will minimize the time it takes your staff to answer questions.
The bulk of work can then be done off-site at the contractor's office.
Off-site testing in case of software products
If your product is software, your documentation service provider can often use a suitable test version on his own computer to do most of the testing. Meetings at your facilities and telephone or video conferences can then focus on expert interviews.
The bottom line: it depends on the product
So, what can be concluded from this as a general rule?
| ▪ | The more investigation has to be done with the product the nearer the documentation service provider should be located to the manufacturer. However, in most cases you will not need more than a few well-prepared meetings. |
| ▪ | With software documentation projects distance usually is no problem at all, so the manufacturer and the documentation service can well be hundreds of miles apart. |
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