Software Documentation

Software Documentation
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Software Documentation
Software development life cycle form is also called as waterfall model which is followed by greater part of systems. The technical user the documentation it caters to different user tasks and meets the requirements of users with varied experience and expertise. The technical writer should be able to differentiate between the users and system administrators. In each user documentation they should have different description according to the software thus The functional description document grants information on the system requirements and the services accessible thus this document should offer a comprehensive overview of the software and the end-users should be able to make a decision whether this is the software they are looking for after going through the introductory manual (Holcombe, 2008)
A document created by the manufacturer of software that provides detailed installation and operation instructions is called User Guide. In the user system installation document it`s specifically meant for the system administrators and this document should give information on how to install the system thus the system installation document should have an explanation of the system files and the hardware configuration required. It should also present comprehensive information on how to operate the system, how the configuration dependent files should be customized and how to set up the permanent files. The user system configuration document is meant for the system administrators or users. It provides information on how to configure the system or the software for end-use and it can be combined with the system installation document depending upon the requirement and the volume of information given (Sugumaran, 2012)
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The introductory manual should introduce the audience to that meticulous software. It should outline the normal functions of the software and should provide instructions on how to get started and how to use the various applications. The software reference documentation should give information on the software services, how to use those services, list of error messages and how to recover from errors. The software reference manual should be written in a descriptive style (Lacy, 2012)
In software development process, documentation guide has three categories related to software development process: Technical documentation developed for the period of the development process and this includes architecture, functional and design documents, Technical documentation prepared for techn...