Customer Partnering: Data Gathering for Complex On‐Line Documentation

As technical communicators face the challenge of organizing information from different products and departments and for different audiences into integrated on‐line information sources, they must perform rigorous audience and task analyses. Technical communicators today must document complex applications used in complex environments. Information about users and use models is important under these conditions, especially if documentation is to be presented on‐line. Customer partnering, a method of information gathering that supplements surveys, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and interviews, provides a way of involving the users of complex applications in the design of information delivery systems. This chapter shows how this method can be used to help a client gather important information about user and use models, and design a new information library for complex server computer systems. The major benefit of customer partnering is the relationship that develops between a client company and its customer partners through repeated contact.