Developing Documentation During System Development by Narain Balchandani

System documentation and user documentation include the two types of documents. System documentation is needed for better understanding and maintenance of the computer software. User documentation was designed to help an individual operate the machine. A good-quality document requires designing the documents, writing and editing the words, and testing them, thus takes extended period for documentation. Lower-quality documentation can be produced faster. Nowadays online documentation has become more important compared to traditional paper-based manuals. Users will be more familiar with paper-based documents which are much easier to use. Although online documents require visitors to be acquainted with additional software commands, searching for information is easier in online documents. These also let the users to activate with the document.





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



Introduction



There are 2 kinds of documents.



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



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



User documentation (such as user?s manuals, training manuals and internet based help systems) was created to help an individual operate the device. Although most project teams expect users to get received training and study the user?s manuals before operating the machine, unfortunately this is not always the case. It is more widespread today ? especially in the case of economic software packages for microcomputers ? for users to begin the software without training or reading the person?s manual.



User documentation can often be left until the end of the project, which is really a dangerous strategy. Developing a good documentation takes longer than many people expect since it requires considerably more than simply writing several pages.



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



Thus, a ?simple? group of documentation like a 20-page user?s manual and a group of 20 help screens take 100 hours. Of course, lower-quality documentation can be produced faster.



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



This reduces ? but won't eliminate ? the necessity for the documentation to become tested and revised ahead of the acceptance tests commences.



Although paper-based manuals continue to be significant, online documentation is now more important. Paper-based documentation is much easier to use since it is more familiar to users, especially novices who may have less computer experience; online documentation necessitates users to learn one more list of commands. Paper-based documentation is also easier to scan through to gain a general understanding of its organization and topics, and may be used distant from the computer itself.



There are four key strengths of online documentation that every but guarantee that it'll be the dominant format form for an additional century. First, seeking information is often simpler (provided the help search index is smartly designed). The user can key in a variety of keywords to see information instantaneously, instead of having to search through the index or table of contents inside a paper document. Second, the same information might be presented several times in many different formats, so that the user can find and browse the information in the most informative way.



Third, online documentation enables the users to activate with the documentation. For example, it really is possible to utilize links or ?tool tips? (i.e., pop-up text) to describe unfamiliar terms, and programmers can write ?show me? routines that report on the screen just click the up coming internet page what buttons to click and text to type. Finally, online documentation is quite a bit less expensive to distribute and keep up-to-date than paper documentation.



Types of Documentation



There are fundamentally three different forms of user documentation: reference documents, procedure manuals and tutorials. Reference documents (also called the help system) are designed to become used when the user must learn how to execute a specific function (e.g., printing a monthly report, taking a customer order). Typically, people read reference information only once they have tried and failed to complete the function. Writing reference documentation requires special care because users tend to be impatient or frustrated once they begin to read them.



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



Tutorials teach people how to use major components of it (e.g., introducing the basic operations of the machine). Each entry inside the tutorial is typically longer than the entities in procedure manuals along with the entities are often designed being read in sequence, whereas entries in reference documents and procedure manuals are designed to get read individually.



Regardless from the type of user documentation, the overall process for developing it really is similar to the procedure for developing interfaces. The developer first designs the general structure for that documentation then develops the individual components there.



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





Narain Balchandani, Director of Integrated Quality Training Institute, Bangalore, has greater than 14 numerous years of experience within the field of teaching. His favourite subjects include Business Analysis, Data Modelling, writing, UML and so forth. IQTI offers lessons in these topics. For more info, talk about