Working the Documentation and User Assistance booth at Tech Ed 2009

Today was my first day of booth duty at the Documentation and User Assistance booth at Tech Ed North America 2009 and it went pretty well. Attendees were very receptive to our key messages about how User Assistance teams added value to what is already a cool feature for Windows Server 2008 R2 (the Best Practices Analyzer) and how we use the TechNet ratings and feedback to make changes to published content.

Help content for the Best Practices Analyzer

Attendees loved the fact that when you click the “better-when-connected” at the bottom of the Best Practices Analyzer issue dialog, the corresponding TechNet topic contained lots of additional content, including resolution steps. Many organizations use Windows Server 2003 and are skeptical that clicking a help link in the error message or the Event Log event will provide any additional information. With Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, this has changed through health models and other content, such as that written for the Best Practice Analyzers.

TechNet feedback

Many people were surprised that we actually look at the feedback submitted via the Click to Rate and Give Feedback section of TechNet and MSDN pages. They assumed that the feedback went to a dark corner of Microsoft and was never seen again. We showed them an example of actual feedback and how that feedback resulted in updated, published content. And there was much rejoicing...

See my previous blog post for the details of how to give us feedback on published TechNet and MSDN content.

Joe Davies
Principal Technical Writer
The Windows Server Networking Documentation Team