The Next-Generation Product Documentation Benchmark Report ...

The Next-Generation
Product Documentation Report

Getting Past the “Throw It over the Wall” Approach









December 2006





The Next-Generation Product Documentation Benchmark Report

Executive Summary
ausing a missed product launch because of incomplete product documentation is
the nightmare of every documentation manager. But the harsh reality is that C documentation departments are expected to do more work in much less time as
cycles become compressed. Some documentation departments, however, are not
only meeting their product launch and publication dates, but are using documentation to
increase customer satisfaction. How are they doing it? It’s actually quite simple.
Key Business Value Findings
• Best in class performers hit documentation targets on a 92% or better average.
• Laggard performers hit translation cost targets only 23% of the time.
• ers experience half the translation gap experienced by lag-
gards.
• Best in class performers execute two-thirds fewer post product launch changes
than laggards.
Implications & Analysis
• Best in class performers integrate documentation into engineering from a process
(74% more likely) and organizational perspective (69% more likely).
• For text-based documentation, best in class companies are 46% more likely to
author structured documentation, 72% more likely to use design-based illustra-
tion tools, 45% more likely to manage ...