Process flows and content design

Yesterday I sat in with some folks working on the next version of SMS to observe their approach to process flow and documentation. (I don't want to be leaking feature information that might not be ready for public release yet, so I'm going to use the fictional "verning" instead.)

The key players were the writing team and the verning expert. The lead technical writer had already assembled a rough process flow from the verning specification, and placed each step on its own Post-it® on the whiteboard.

The verning expert began by pointing out that, although the steps on the board were all sequential and part of the overall process, they actually fell logically into four different stages: planning, preparing, doing, following up. (Writers love it when information organizes itself so neatly!)

And that's why Post-its® are so handy - just takes a moment to rearrange them to suit the new approach. Now, with our four sets of steps, the expert begins explaining and the writers ask questions to clarify and to make sure the flow accounts for everything the customer will need to know or do. New Post-its® are added as we go.

"I have plinking first - is there anything I should have done before that?"

"What other ways could the customer do that?"

"We're telling them to connect to the plonking point, but that isn't in planning - do they need to do something earlier about plonking?"

"What are their choices at this step? What decisions do they have to make?"

The design phase is such fun.