Wow! Is this article ever timely as I have spent the past two weeks in "strained discussions" with a SaaS developer from whom I've bought a product who refuses to provide any form of documentation. The discussions I refer to are the many back-and-forth emails we've each been sending; me with another question, him with another answer.

The software does what it's supposed to do - and fortunately a lot more - and it's in the exploration and required experimentation of those added features and functions that I find myself getting very frustrated. Since acquiring this product a few weeks ago I have spent literally a half dozen hours trying to figure out such things. Compounding the frustration is that many aspects of the software require some time to pass until the effect of a switch or selection can be understood. For example, the SaaS product potentially generates a weekly report but I must wait an entire week after configuration to actually see the report. No example of it is provided because, as I've stated, there literally is no documentation!

Would I have bought such a thing had I known beforehand that I'd be spending hours experimenting and trying to figure out this somewhat complex proudct? Probably not. I understand software developers not wanting to release full documentation to just anyone interested in their software. Such things can become the blueprint for a competitor making a knock-off. Should I be asking if such a thing is available beforehand?!

Personally, I love to browse through the docs of most all of the software products I purchase because it gives me the heads-up on things the software can do that I didn't know about. They often also give me the heads-up on the implications of turning Switch A on that aren't always apparent.

In the end, I think most software developers that don't even provide basic, high-level documentation are effectively stating to me, 'It would take me X hours to write that documentation and I'd rather you spend X hours trying to figure it out.' In other words, 'My time is worth more than your time.' How arrogant.