Principles of Software Documentation
While writing or contributing into any software documentation, one must keep in mind the following set of 7-principles :
1. Write from reader’s point of view:
It’s important to keep in mind the targeted audience that will be learning, and working through the software’s documentation to understand and implement the fully functional robust software application and even the ones who will be learning for the purpose of using the software. So, while writing a documentation it becomes very crucial to use the simplest language & domain related specific languages and terminologies. The structure of the documentation should be organized in a clearly viewable, navigable and understandable format.
- If there’s a lot of content, you can organize it in the glossary part at the end of the document.
- List down synonyms, antonyms and difficult terminologies used.
2. Avoid unnecessary repetition:
While the idea of hyperlinking and backlinking may seem redundant at the moment, but it aids in avoiding the need of redundancy. The back-end database stores every piece of information as an individual unit and displays it in various different variety of context so redundancy at any point will not be maintainable and is considered a bad practice.
3. Avoid ambiguity:
Documentation contains a lot of information regarding the versatile functionalities of the software system, every part of it must be written with clear and precise knowledge while avoiding any conflicting information that might cause confusion to the reader. For example, if one terminology is used in different set of context than it must be explicitly defined what it means so to avoid any miscommunication. This aspect of the software documentation is very important to avoid any kind of conflicting knowledge between the stakeholders, developers and the maintainers.
4. Follow a certain standard organization:
In order to maintain the professionalism, accuracy, and precision of the document a certain set of principles must be followed taking reference from other software documentations that would aid in organizing and structuring the content of the documentation in a much productive and organized way.
5. Record a Rationale
Rationale contains a comprehensive understanding of why a certain design or development decision was made. This part of our documentation is written & maintained by the developer or the designer itself for justification and verification for later needs. Rationale can be mentioned in the start or the end of the document although typically, it’s in the start of the document.
6. Keep the documentation updated but to an extent
This principle applies to the maintainers of the documentation of the software, because updates are made to the software on frequent intervals. The updates may contain some bug fixes, new feature addition or previous functionality maintenance. The maintainer of the documentation must only add the valuable content and avoid anything that doesn’t fit and irrelevant for that particular time.
7. Review documentation
The documentation consists of too many web-pages collectively holding a large chunk of information that’s serving a sole purpose – educate and spread knowledge to anyone who is trying to understand or implement the software. While working with a lot of information it is important ta take feedback from senior architects and make any necessary changes aligning the documentation with its sole purpose depending on the type of documentation.
Overview Software Documentation
Software documentation is a written piece of text that is often accompanied by a software program. This makes the life of all the members associated with the project easier. It may contain anything from API documentation, build notes or just help content. It is a very critical process in software development. It’s primarily an integral part of any computer code development method. Moreover, computer code practitioners are a unit typically concerned with the worth, degree of usage, and quality of the actual documentation throughout the development and its maintenance throughout the total method. Motivated by the requirements of Novatel opposition, a world-leading company developing package in support of worldwide navigation satellite system, and based mostly on the results of a former systematic mapping studies area unit aimed at a higher understanding of the usage and therefore the quality of varied technical documents throughout computer code development and their maintenance.
For example, before the development of any software product requirements are documented which is called Software Requirement Specification (SRS). Requirement gathering is considered a stage of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
Another example can be a user manual that a user refers to for installing, using, and providing maintenance to the software application/product.