SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION

Ks.VIGNESH RENGANATH: 

Ks.VIGNESH RENGANATH SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION

WHY DO WE NEED DOCUMENTAION ?: 

WHY DO WE NEED DOCUMENTAION ? Documentation provides communication among the team members . Documentation acts as the information repository for the maintenance phase . Documentation instructs the users how to use the system . Design documents are important while designing and coding the software product . User manual is documented after the software product is successfully developed.

TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION: 

TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION

TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION: 

TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION PROCESS DOCUMENTS: Used to record and track the development process. PRODUCT DOCUMENT: Describes the delivered product.

PROCESS DOCUMENT: 

PROCESS DOCUMENT This documentation is created for the successful management of the software product. Important to internal development process and has shorter life span. The design documents that may be of further use should be added to the product documentation after implementation.

PRODUCT DOCUMENT: 

PRODUCT DOCUMENT Describes the delivered product. Evolves with the development of the software product. Types : System Documentation. User Documentation.

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION: 

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION Describes how system works but not how to operate it. Examples : Architectural design. Requirements specification. Detailed design. Commented source code. Test plans. List of knows bugs.

USER DOCUMENTATION: 

USER DOCUMENTATION The user documentation describes each feature of the programs and assists the user in realizing these features. Types of user documentation : End user. System administrator.

USER DOCUMENTATION: 

USER DOCUMENTATION Documentation contains: Functional description of the software. Installation instructions. Introductory manual. Reference manual. System administrators guide.

DOCUMENT QUALITY: 

DOCUMENT QUALITY Providing thorough and professional documentation is the important criteria for the document quality. Quality document must follow some standard like IEEE.

DOCUMENT STRUCTURE: 

DOCUMENT STRUCTURE Put a cover page on all documents. Divide documents into chapters with sections and subsections. Add an index if there is lots of reference information. Add a glossary to define ambiguous terms.

STANDARDS: 

STANDARDS Standards play important role in the development , maintenance and usefulness of the documentation. Types: Process standards. Product standards. Interchange standards.

PROCESS STANDARDS: 

PROCESS STANDARDS Define the approach that is to be used when creating the documentation. Don’t actually define any of the content of these documents.

PRODUCT STANDARDS: 

PRODUCT STANDARDS Goal is to have all documents created for a specific product attain a consistent structure and appearance. Based on the organizational or required standards. Types:

INTERCHANGE STANDARDS: 

INTERCHANGE STANDARDS Deals with the creation of documents in a format what allows others to effectively use. Using the common standards while the document is shared between two different organizations.

OTHER STANDARDS: 

OTHER STANDARDS IEEE: Has a published standard for user documentation. Provides a structure and superset of content areas. WRITING STYLE: Author proposes that group edits of important documents should occur in a similar fashion to software walkthroughs.

ONLINE DOCUMENTATION: 

ONLINE DOCUMENTATION Either internal to the application or web based. Should act as a supplement to paper documentation. Biggest benefit of web documents are that they are always current.

DOCUMENT PREPARATION: 

DOCUMENT PREPARATION Covers the entire process of creating and formatting document for publication. After completion the document is often reviewed by a professional writer to ensure the quality of the document.

DOCUMENT STORAGE: 

DOCUMENT STORAGE File system to store the actual documents. Database to store references to the flies with metadata to allow searching and referencing.