What we want to do is use task, concept and reference as topic types, but we are having some problems deciding about the granularity and total number of our tasks. Our previous end user documentation was rather verbose and unstructured, so we can reuse little of that. Also, thinking in terms of tasks our users perform, instead of dialogues and functions, doesn't come easy to many of us.
Luckily, DEV is also slowly shifting to use-case-based documentation and QM has some nicely structured test cases we can work with, but this entire process of task definition has proved to be more time-consuming than originally expected. Guesstimations currently run from 300 to 800 tasks in total for launch, which shows how very much at the beginning of things we are right now.
Additionally, when our tasks are defined and documented, we want to be able to combine them into end-to-end scenarios as well. Has this been done before using Flare (apart from the Flare WebHelp itself)? If so, how? Do we simply create a new topic, "workflow A", which then contains, say, 50 tasks? How can this best be done in Flare, so that I only have to update the tasks themselves?
Oh, our output is web-based (WebHelp, HTML 5), plus PDFs if users want to print topics. We'll likely end up having 2 projects (German/English) and we are documenting 1 single, but rather complex SW product.
Any pointers in the right direction or links to best practice procedures described somewhere on the web will be much appreciated. I'm probably not the only one with such problems and as the only tech writer on this project I really, really could use some motivational input from you guys
What you describe is exactly the situation here, which is why we decided to go for more structured, topic-based authoring, hoping it will eventually reduce time & effort going into our end user documentation. Let's hope some of the Senior Propeller Heads find the time to post some responses here!