Richard M. (Dick) Haney, of the CMT Group, a technology consulting company in Palo Alto, CA., specializes in product engineering, manufacturing and technical management consulting.

Individuals and organizations pursuing product development universally relate to the resulting physical product, as does the market… However, as we will see there is an alter ego of the product, which is equally important: that is documentation. And there are certain 'Groups-Of-Influence' and 'Guidelines-Of-Business', which will oblige you to prepare very specific documentation during your product development project. We'll outline (1) how you can determine the proper amount and pertinence of documentation to satisfy the demands of these 'groups' and 'guidelines' and (2) how documentation will add visibility, team cohesion, control and direction to your project. All this suggests that your plans need to reflect the 'not insignificant' cost of a necessary documentation effort.