#1 RATIONALE FOR DOCUMENTS: THE 'GROUPS-OF-INFLUENCE'

In today's product development, sales and support environment various Groups-Of-Influence oblige, or at least encourage, that specific product documentation be generated, disseminated and maintained. These Groups-Of-Influence are profiled as follows:

• Developer / Designer of the product / Owner of the product (creator and holder of the Intellectual Property, value, etc.) - designated as D/O
• Manufacturer of the product and suppliers of components - herein designated as M
• Regulatory Agencies (e.g. UL, FCC, FDA, CE, OSHA) - designated as R
• User / Market - herein designated as U
• Industry Standards Organizations (e.g. IEEE, ISO, SAE) - designated as S
• Watch-Dog Groups / Government Agencies (e.g. customs, Consumer Reports) / Competitors (who can expose your product's deficiencies) - designated as W

These people can (and some will) demand that you produce documents for their benefit. We'll show some examples of what can be demanded later. Keep in mind that most, if not all, of the documents can be a positive contribution to the development project; nothing will be wasted effort.