.. include:: /include/substitutions.txt .. _strategy: ******** Strategy ******** Definition of Strategy ********************** The term "strategy" is derived from the Greek words: strat\ |eacute|\ gos, which means "general," stratos, which means "army," agein, meaning "to lead." **Strategy**, therefore, by dictionary definition, refers to a *plan for the overall conduct* of a war or sector of it. By extrapolation, it has also come to mean a plan for the skillful overall conduct of a large field of operations, or a sector of such operations, toward the achievement of a specific goal or result. This is planning that is done at upper-echelon level, since, if it is to be effective, it must be done from an overview of the broad existing situation. (The reader is trying to achieve success with your product.) Strategy is therefore a statement of the intended plans for accomplishing a broad objective and inherent in its definition is the idea of clever use of resources, or maneuvers for outwitting the enemy, or overcoming existing obstacles to win the objective. It is the central strategy worked out at the top which, like an umbrella, covers the activities of the echelons below it. That tells us **what strategy is**. What Does Strategy Do? ====================== Strategy provides direction for the activities of all the lower echelons. All the tactical plans and programs and projects to be carried out at lower echelons in order to accomplish the objective, stream down from the strategic plan at the top. It is the overall plan against which all of these are coordinated. This gives a clear look at why strategic planning is so vitally important and why it must be done by the upper-level planning body if management is to be effective and succeed. **Strategy provides the bridge to carry the current situation towards the achievement of the** :ref:`purpose ` **for that activity**. What happens if strategic planning is missing? Well, what happens in the conduct of a war if no strategic planning is done? The Obstacles, Revisited ************************ **Obstacle #1**: *For new readers, presumably reading your documentation in sequence, the reader has limited time to achieve initial successes with your product before he gives up and starts looking elsewhere, either to other documentation, and if that's not available, to another product.* Strategy #1A: Make it Easy to Find and Easy to Access ====================================================== The documentation itself should be easy to find, and easy to access, and its introductory (orientation) material should answer :ref:`basic questions` about the "thing" as quickly and succinctly as possible. There are many common ways to address this, but the end result is that when the reader needs the material, it can be quickly at his fingertips, whether it be online, in the form of a pocketbook (for readers in the field), or a publication in a form that fits nicely on a shelf (or another storage place) near the reader when he needs it. It needs to have an introductory chapter that quickly orients the reader to the product, and to its parts if complex. When the reader reads the material *in sequence*, he should be able to easily follow the train of thought, and continue to understand what he is reading because it is in a logical, progressive, gradient sequence: prerequisite understandings are presented first, and more complex understandings come later and build upon the basics already presented. If the reader encounters a word or symbol he does not fully understand, he must be able to look it up (if the definition is beyond the scope of the material). This prohibits the use of slang or local colloquialisms. Strategy #1B: Reduce Time Required to Achieve Initial Success with Your Product ================================================================================ Early access to a "Quick Start" document (included card, chapter or section) and/or simple examples where they apply (e.g. programming examples), are key to speeding up your reader's path to achieving initial success with your product. |hrtb| **Obstacle #2**: *For readers who are trying to answer a specific question about your product, once again, the reader has limited time to get it answered before he gives up, and again starts looking elsewhere.* Strategy #2: Make Topics Easy and Quick to Find ================================================ Here the reader is asking a specific question, he should be able to find its answer quickly. Every second and every minute counts. To handle this well, your documentation must be organized so that every approach the reader might take to find an answer to a question is met with swift success. We know these approaches include: - Skimming the table of contents to find the applicable chapter and section. The table of contents therefore: - must be in a logical, progressive sequence, and - its chapter and section titles should be intuitive and apply directly to the material contained. - Once he has found what he is looking for, *everything* about that topic should be there in one place (chapter, section, etc.), including orientation about that topic, gradiently-progressing understandings, and full coverage to whatever extent he may need. If expert-level material is covered elsewhere, it's location should be referenced so the reader can find it if/when he needs it and/or is ready for it. - Using a search mechanism (if there is one)---electronic and/or index. The search mechanism must therefore be thorough enough that the user finds what he is looking for with at most one or two searches.