Developing software documentation

All software products, whether created by a small team or a large company, need technical documentation. So, learn more about technical documentation as you read this article. Technical documentation is one of the most crucial parts of software development. In addition, a technical document serves many purposes from development, knowledge transfer, and maintenance.

For this reason, the technical documentation must be error-free as it might lead to gaps between stakeholders. However, producing reliable technical documentation is one of the main headache-inducing processes for a software development team. As a result, development teams now include a technical writer. Therefore, software development teams ensure that the technical document is accurate. By definition, technical documentation is the document that carries all the information and data about a product or service.

There is a need to do technical documentation whether the product is in development, use, or upgrade. In short, the document presents how to use and maintain the product. In software development, technical documentation records all the processes throughout the SDLC. It also explains integrations, libraries, and software development kits SDK.

The main goal of technical documentation is to make sure that developers and other stakeholders are on the same page. Thus, the document helps everyone involved in the project achieve the same objectives. Technical documentation in software development is categorized into two main types: Product documentation and Process documentation. This type of documentation involves describing the product and instructions on how to perform tasks with it.

Generally, user documentation is aimed at two large categories:. The documentation created for end-users should explain in the simplest way possible how the software can help solve their problems. Such user instructions can be provided in the printed form, online, or offline on a device. Here are the main types of the user documents:. The complete manual includes exhaustive information and instructions on how to install and operate the product.

It lists the hardware and software requirements, detailed description of the features and full guidelines on how to get the most out of them, example inputs and outputs, possible tips and tricks, etc. The troubleshooting guide gives end-users information on how to find and resolve possible issues that might arise when using the product. For a detailed overview, check our article dedicated to user documentation. Some parts of user documentation, such as tutorials and onboarding, in many large customer-based products are replaced with onboarding training.

Nevertheless, there are still complex systems remaining that require documented user guides. User documentation requires technical writers to be more imaginative. Online end-user documentation may include the following sections:. Written in plain language with visual materials and step-by-step instructions included, user guides can become a powerful marketing tool and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Besides, to provide the best service for end-users, you should collect your customer feedback continuously. The wiki system is one of the more useful practices. It helps to maintain the existing documentation. You can create your wiki pages using a wiki markup language and HTML code. Usually, administration docs cover installation and updates that help a system administrator with product maintenance. Here are standard system administrators documents:. Process documentation covers all activities surrounding product development.

The value of keeping process documentation is to make development more organized and well-planned. This branch of documentation requires some planning and paperwork both before the project starts and during the development. Here are common types of process documentation:. Plans, estimates, and schedules. These documents are usually created before the project starts and can be altered as the product evolves.

Reports and metrics. Reports reflect how time and human resources were used during development. They can be generated on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Consult our article on agile delivery metrics to learn more about process documents such as velocity chats, sprint burndown charts, and release burndown charts. Working papers. The majority of process documents are specific to the particular moment or phase of the process. As a result, these documents quickly become outdated and obsolete.

But they still should be kept as part of development because they may become useful in implementing similar tasks or maintenance in the future. Also, process documentation helps to make the whole development more transparent and easier to manage. The main goal of process documentation is to reduce the amount of system documentation. In order to achieve this, write the minimal documentation plan.

List the key contacts, release dates, and your expectations with assumptions. Product roadmaps are used in Agile software development to document vision, strategy, and overall goals of the project. Roadmaps are used as process documents to keep the course of development in sync with initial goals. Depending on the type of product roadmap, it can express high-level objectives, prioritization of tasks, the sprint timeline, or low-level details.

A strategic roadmap is a high-level strategic document, that contains overall information on the project. Strategic roadmaps usually state a vision and long-term goals. In the case of agile product development, a roadmap can be arranged in themes. Themes are multiple tasks that a team must complete and are somehow connected. Grouping the information around the themes makes a roadmap highly flexible and updatable, which is a great fit for sprint-based development.

The best advice concerning strategic roadmapping is to include only important information. Otherwise, you risk turning your roadmap into a clumsy scheme, difficult to both understand and maintain.

Source: productplan. A technology roadmap or IT roadmap is a low-level document that describes technical requirements and the means of technology implementation.

IT roadmaps are quite detailed. They contain the information on each deliverable, explaining the reason for such a decision. Source: hutwork. A release plan is used to set strict time limits for releases. A release plan should focus on the actual deadlines without specifying release details. It is highly recommended to use roadmap specific tools to create your own roadmaps. Online tools like Roadmunk provide various templates for product roadmaps, allow quick editing, and provide easy sharing across all team members.

Keep in mind, that a roadmap, depending on its type, can be a product document that states requirements. It also describes the process and guides your team through development. There are countless collaborative tools for software development teams. Those can help to state requirements, share information, and document features and processes:.

As software documentation is easier to be used on the web, it has to be created in a proper format. Markup is used on GitHub and Reddit, and basically everywhere for web-based documentation.

So, here are some Markdown editors that can be useful for creating documents for your project:. Most roadmapping tools provide templates for different roadmaps to let you start working with this document right away.

Basically, all the tools offer free trials and paid plans with differences in templates, number of roadmaps, and people you can share them with. The most popular tools for user experience design are prototyping tools that help create sketches, mock-ups, wireframes, and interactive prototypes:. The process of creating API documentation is most often automated.

Programmers or tech writers may write the documentation manually or use API documentation generators:. Professional tech writers often use specialized software for creating high-quality tech documentation. Such tools are called content management systems , or CMSs, and allow for easier building, organizing, and managing various documentation.

A CMS can operate different file formats, import and store content, and let multiple users contribute to content development. Some popular CMSs include:. Many of the tools described in the previous section provide a variety of templates for creating tech documentation. Software documentation should be comprehensive, but avoid including anything that isn't absolutely necessary.

Be strategic. Consider what kind of documentation you've used so far and whether or not it was helpful in your development process. Determine what gaps currently exist in your documentation library. Without a doubt, your software will go through many different versions by the time you get to your finished product. As methodologies, mock-ups, functionalities, metrics and deliverables shift among other things , so will your documentation. Make sure you determine a process for updating documents and keeping track of different versions early on.

You're well on your way to getting together some killer documentation for your software development process. Your project team and end-users will thank you!

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Such documents have how-to tutorials, videos, troubleshooting guides, and other resources that end-users need, to use your software.

This documentation is for internal use only. It also includes release notes for feature or software updates, installation process, architecture description, and much more. Well, that was all about the online documentation tools for developers. ProProfs Knowledge Base is a simple and versatile tool that helps you create software documentation of top-notch quality for your end-users. Packed with bespoke features, the tool simplifies software documentation and assists you at all stages of content creation, right from authoring to publishing.

If you are worried about where to start, fret not. The tool offers ready-to-use templates that give you a good starting point to build content. You can write and style the entire software documentation just the way you want with the wide array of formatting features ProProfs Knowledge Base provides.

In addition to this, features like single sourcing, revision history, import, and export, further improve the process of creating and managing online documentation. Process Street is another tool for software documentation that deserves your attention. It comes with a simple interface that lets you build structured software documentation for your end-users. With intuitive keyboard shortcuts and drag and drop functionality, Process Street makes document authoring easy for everyone in your development team.

You can also add visual and audio elements to your document and turn it into a media-rich information resource. In addition to this, it allows developers to work in collaboration and take full accountability for the assigned software development tasks.

Whatfix is carefully-designed to help you provide digitally-driven and contextually-relevant experiences to your end-users. With Whatfix, you can deliver in-app support to product users and take them through step-by-step instructions right inside your software product. It allows you to pack your software documentation in a small widget that points users towards relevant articles.

With such interactive guidance and contextual walkthroughs in real-time, right when users are exploring your software, Whatfix promises an exceptional experience. It supports multi-branding, domain mapping, a powerful authoring system, and forums and communities. All these features and many more are designed to help you create, manage, and maintain your software documentation with ease.

This makes the ultimate user experience much better as they get the best of both the worlds — self-service as well as direct interaction with fellow users.