Calling It Finished

Feature creep

Feature creep (the addition of new features during the production cycle) can be a very big problem for documentation projects. While adding a new kind of popup to your online help or adding new kinds of notes and tips to print documents may seem like a great idea, you should avoid this sort of thing. It can set back your production schedule and cause unforeseen problems in your design. Worse yet, it can completely halt production. The addition of the definition popups to my web site is a good example of feature creep. I added the popup once I had decided on a "final" design for my site. Their addition turned out to be more of a hassle than I had thought.

The best way to prevent feature creep is to create a thorough design when you first begin a new project and follow that design. If you think of a better way to do things at some point during production, save it for the next version. Remember, documentation is a living thing. It changes through time. You will always have another chance to include some special feature you're fond of.