「Developing Documentation During System Development by Narain Balchandani」の版間の差分

2016年7月20日 (水) 23:01時点における版

System documentation and user documentation would be the two types of documents. System documentation is necessary for better understanding and repair off the computer software. User documentation is made to help an individual operate the machine. A good-quality document requires designing the documents, writing and editing the text, and testing them, and therefore takes extended period for documentation. Lower-quality documentation can be done faster. Nowadays online documentation is now more important compared to traditional paper-based manuals. Users tend to be more familiar with paper-based documents and these are safer to use. Although online documents require website visitors to be knowledgeable about additional software commands, searching for information is easier in online documents. These also enable the users to activate with the document.



There are mostly three varieties of user documentation: reference documents, procedure manuals and tutorials. Reference documents are used when the user should learn how to perform specific function. Procedure manuals describe the way to perform business tasks. Tutorials teach people how you can use major components of the device.



Introduction



There are 2 types of documents.



System documentation should help programmers and systems analysts understand the approval software and enable them to build it or maintain it after the system is installed. System documentation can be a by-product of it analysis and design process, and is also created because project unfolds.



Each step and phase produce documents that are essential in understanding how the system is built or is to be built, and the documents are kept in the project binder(s).



User documentation (such as user?s manuals, training manuals and Highly recommended Internet page based help systems) was designed to help the consumer operate the device. Although most project teams expect users to own received training and browse the user?s manuals before operating the machine, unfortunately this is not always the truth. It is more established today ? specially in the case of economic software packages for microcomputers ? for users to begin the software without training or reading the user?s manual.



User documentation is often left until the end of the project, which is often a dangerous strategy. Developing a good documentation takes over many people expect as it requires far more than simply writing a couple of pages.



Producing documentation requires designing the documents (whether paper or online), writing the text, editing them and testing them. For good-quality documentation, this process usually takes about 3 hours per paper page (single-spaced) for paper-based documentation or 2 hours per screen for online documentation.



Thus, a ?simple? list of documentation including a 20-page user?s manual and a pair of 20 help screens take 100 hours. Of course, lower-quality documentation can be achieved faster.



The time needed to develop and test user documentation must be built into the project plan. Most organizations policy for documentation development to start out once the interface design and program specifications are complete. The initial draft of documentation is usually scheduled for completion immediately after the unit tests are complete.



This reduces ? but will not eliminate ? the requirement for the documentation to become tested and revised before the acceptance tests commences.



Although paper-based manuals remain significant, online documentation has become more important. Paper-based documentation is better to use because it is more familiar to users, especially novices who've less computer experience; online documentation necessitates the users to find out one more group of commands. Paper-based documentation is also easier to flip through to gain a broad understanding of its organization and topics, and can be used a long way away from the computer itself.



There are four key strengths of online documentation that most but guarantee that it'll be the dominant format form for one more century. First, seeking information is often simpler (provided the assistance search index is attractive). The user can enter a variety of keywords to view information instantaneously, instead of having to look through the index or table of contents in a paper document. Second, the identical information could be presented many times in many different formats, so that the consumer can find and focus the information inside the most informative way.



Third, online documentation enables the users to activate with the documentation. For example, it can be possible to utilize links or ?tool tips? (i.e., pop-up text) to clarify unfamiliar terms, and programmers can write ?show me? routines that demonstrate on the screen precisely what buttons to click and text to type. Finally, online documentation is significantly less expensive to distribute whilst up-to-date than paper documentation.



Types of Documentation



There are fundamentally three different varieties of user documentation: reference documents, procedure manuals and tutorials. Reference documents (also called the assistance system) are designed to be used in the event the user needs to learn how to perform specific function (e.g., printing a monthly report, going for a customer order). Typically, people read reference information only after they have tried and failed to complete the function. Writing reference documentation requires special care because users are often impatient or frustrated when they begin to read them.



Procedure manuals describe how to perform business tasks (e.g., printing a monthly report, going for a customer order). Each item within the procedures manually guides the consumer through a task that will require several functions or steps in the machine. Therefore, each entry is usually much longer than an entry in a reference document.



Tutorials teach people how to use major components of the device (e.g., presenting the basic operations of the device). Each entry in the tutorial is typically longer than the entities in procedure manuals and also the entities usually are designed to become read in sequence, whereas entries in reference documents and procedure manuals are designed to become read individually.



Regardless from the type of user documentation, the overall process for developing it really is similar to the technique of developing interfaces. The developer first designs the general structure for the documentation and after that develops the average person components inside.



Documentation and managing the documentation in company?s Intranet are critical for an organization, along with the resource spent on it really is worthwhile. For more info on these topics and training talk about Business Analysis & Data Modeling Training Bangalore





Narain Balchandani, Director of Integrated Quality Training Institute, Bangalore, has a lot more than 14 numerous years of experience within the field training. His favourite subjects include Business Analysis, Data Modelling, writing, UML etc. IQTI offers training in these topics. For more info, refer to