Procedure Document for a Field Hardware Upgrade
A hardware manufacturer of network devices needed to implement a hardware upgrade for products at customer sites. The change would be carried out by returning the units to the manufacturer's facility for work by their in-house technical staff, by performing upgrades in the field using their own staff, and by performing the upgrades using partner and distribution channel personnel. Although their own staff performed at a high level of technical skill, some of the third-party technicians were not trained or experienced at component-level replacement. They needed documentation that would allow the technicians to perform the upgrade successfully.
What the company needed
The company already had an in-house documentation group that produced technical materials. This document needed to be produced quickly without adding to the work already in progress.
The LTS answer
We read their in-house technical note for performing the upgrade and observed their skilled technician performing the procedure. We also collected a sample of their documentation that they wanted to base the formatting of this document on.
After laying out the draft of the document, we scheduled a session with their expert to perform the procedure while we photographed the components and the actual upgrade. Using PaintShop Pro, we edited the photographs to remove extraneous background and highlight the keys areas of the components. Using Microsoft Word, we formatted the document to match their existing technical notes. The resulting fifty page document included pictures of all the key components and necessary tools to perform the procedure, followed by step-by-step directions for carrying it out.
The LTS solution
LTS provided the document necessary to the procedure, and the manufacturer did not have to overburden the already busy in-house documentation group to develop the upgrade procedure.
