While going through some Google Alerts the other day, I stumbled across this blog post that discusses user-guide-driven development. What the author wrote about bad software code bubbling up into the documentation is so true.

The user documentation is an excellent indicator of the quality of a product. Bad software produces a lot of lengthy documentation because you have to clearly, almost laboriously guide the user through a convoluted workflow or process.

The author is saying something that Scott and I (and others in our field) have said for years. You can’t paper over bad design, no matter how hard you try. But done iteratively, documentation can add additional value by improving the product.

It’s not a stretch to say that good technical communicators are the best quality assurance weapon available to technology companies.

Related posts:

1. Musings on user-generated documentation
2. A few thoughts on documentation for the power user
3. How these made it into print, I’ll never know