Documentation Guidelines in Software Engineering

In software engineering, documentation refers to all written papers and resources related to the creation and usage of a software product. All software-related products, either generated by a small group or a huge organization, require some level of documentation. Various sorts of documents are developed during the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC). Documentation exists to clarify product functionality, consolidate project-related information, and enable stakeholders and developers to discuss any important questions that may arise.

Furthermore, documentation inaccuracies can cause gaps between stakeholders' and engineers' ideas, resulting in a suggested solution that fails to fulfil stakeholder expectations. As a result, managers should place a high priority on documentation quality.

What is Documentation?

Software instruction material refers to any documentation created to help users or developers understand the capabilities and functions of a piece of software. This type of technical documentation comprises textual instructions, videos, user guides, and instruction manuals that attempt to assist users in comprehending the features, activities, and functionality of a piece of software.

Software documentation is designed for two types of audiences: software engineers and end users. Documentation in the field of software engineering encompasses knowledge and publications that help experts understand the planning, development, and implementation of products. This documentation helps engineers understand, update, and modify software from the bottom up.

Software documentation outlines what software developers did when creating the product and what IT professionals and customers must do to install and use it. Manuals are typically incorporated into the software's user interface and are also available as part of support manuals. The data is usually categorized into task categories, such as the following:

Services include assessment, planning, installation, modification, management, and maintenance.

Types of Documentation

Product documentation

Process documentation

Product Documentation

It outlines the product under development and gives instructions for doing various activities with it.

Documentation for the product can be separated into System and user documentation:  

• System documentation includes documents that explain the system and its components. It consists of requirements papers, design choices, architectural explanations, software source code, and assistance manuals.
• User documentation includes guides written primarily for the users both the product and administrators of systems. Instructions, user guides, debugging manuals, installation instructions, and reference guides are all examples of user documentation.

Process Documentation

It refers to any papers created during creation and upkeep that explain a process. Common instances of process documentation include project plans, test timetables, reports, standards, notes from meetings, and even business communication.

The primary distinction between the two types of documents is that the former records the development process, whilst the latter explains the product under development.

System Documentation

System documentation gives a brief description of the system other helps engineers and others grasp the underlying technology. It often includes the requirements paper, architecture, source code, validation documentation, verification, and testing information, and a maintenance or assistance guide. It's worth noting that this list isn't exhaustive. So, let's look at the specifics of the major varieties.

Requirements Document

A requirements document contains information on system functionality. In general, requirements are statements that specify what a computer system should perform. It includes company regulations; user stories, and uses cases. This paper should be straightforward and concise, rather than a long and dense wall of words. It should be comprehensive enough to describe the product's goal, features, functions, and behaviour.

The ideal approach is to create a requirement document from an unattached, consistent template that all team members use. The one-page form is designed to assist you keep the record simple and reduce the time spent obtaining information. Here's an example of a one-page product requirements document to help you understand the many aspects that must be included in your PRD. However, keep in mind that this is not the only approach to constructing this text.

Here are the primary tips to follow:

• Roles and responsibilities: Start your paper with details about project participants such as the product's owner, team members, and customers. These elements will help to define duties and explain each team member's target release goals.
• There are team goals and company objectives: Define the most critical goals in a concise style.
• Background and strategic match: Give a brief description of the strategic purpose of your activities. Why are you creating this product? How do your activities contribute to creating products and align with the company's goals?
• Assumptions: Make a list of expertise or commercial presumptions that the team may hold.
• User stories: List or link the user stories necessary for the project. A user narrative is a document produced from the perspective of someone using the software you sell. The user narrative is a brief explanation of the customer's actions and desired results.
• Interaction with users and design: Connect the design experiments and diagrams to the web page.
• As the team addresses difficulties throughout the project, numerous questions may arise. A smart practice was to record and track all of these questions.
• List the things you're not doing right now but plan to do shortly. A list like this can help you organize your team's efforts and prioritize features.

Guidelines for Software Documentation

Software documentation should adhere to the following 7 guidelines:

Write from the Reader's Perspective

It is critical to consider the target audience who will be learning and working through the program's documentation to understand and apply the fully functioning robust software application, as well as those who will be studying just to utilize it. So, while developing documentation, it is critical to employ the simplest language possible, as well as domain-specific languages and terminologies. The documentation's structure should be arranged in a way that is easy to read, navigate, and comprehend. If there is a lot of content, arrange it in a glossary section after the text. List the synonyms, antonyms, and complex terminology utilized.

Avoid Unnecessary Repetition

Use hyperlinks and backlinks to prevent unnecessary duplication. The back-end database maintains each piece of knowledge as a separate unit and presents it in several contexts; therefore duplication at any point is unmaintainable and regarded as a bad practice.

Avoid Ambiguity

To minimize ambiguity, documentation for software systems should be straightforward and accurate, without contradicting information that might confuse readers. For example, if the same phrase is used in multiple contexts, it must be properly stated to avoid confusion. This part of software documentation is critical to avoiding any contradictory knowledge among stakeholders, developers, and maintainers.

Follow a Certain Standard Organization

To maintain competence, accuracy, and precision in documentation, it's important to adhere to standard organization principles based on other software documentation. This will help organize and structure the content more effectively.

Document a Rationale

Rationale provides a thorough knowledge of why a specific design or developmental decision was chosen. This section of our documentation is developed and maintained with the developer or designer for future justification and verification purposes. Rationale can be included at any point in the document; however it is most commonly expressed at the beginning.

Keep the documentation current, but only to an extent

This idea applies to software documentation maintainers since software changes occur at regular periods. The updates may include bug repairs, new feature additions, or past functionality maintenance. The documentation maintainer must only include useful stuff while excluding anything that is out of date or irrelevant at the moment.

Review the Documentation

The documentation is made up of far too many web pages, each of which contains a vast amount of material that serves just one purpose: to teach and distribute knowledge to anybody attempting to understand or apply the program. While handling a large amount of information, it is crucial to get the opinions of senior architects while making any required revisions.whichever type of documentation, should be aligned with its intended function.

Objectives of Software Documentation

The primary goal of developing software documentation should be to make life easier for users and developers.

You should also strive to achieve the following goals:

• Provide Beneficial User Support: Instructions are typically your users' first engagement with your programs capabilities. It should help your users comprehend how to download and use your software. Your documentation should be straightforward and well-organized. End-user support entails gathering all of the information that users require in one location so that they do not have to jump from website to website trying to find out how your product works.
• Documentation comments should be sent to developers. Developers are more likely to accomplish the aims of the endeavour if they have documentation notes.These papers guide them in the right direction and save them money because they don't need much support from project managers or other parties who are interested.
• Important Surface Product Data: Your product paperwork must provide vital information for both consumers and developers. Your application, for example, should provide key features, hardware and software compatibility requirements, installation instructions, and any other relevant information that consumers may want.
• Effective interaction: We can convey vital information to team members, customers, and end users, boosting comprehension and collaboration among all parties.
• Maintain consistency: By outlining our policies and procedures, we can ensure that tasks are executed consistently across the organization.
• Improve efficiency: A well-established system can help us decrease ambiguity and streamline our procedures and operations.
• Reduce risk: By providing guidelines and best practices, excellent documentation may help us identify potential problems and mitigate risks.
• Documentation serves as a record of every action we take, its repercussions, and past experiences allowing individuals to learn from them and use them as points of comparison in the future.

How to Write Efficient Documentation

A superb block of code is similar to good documentation. Short, simple, and direct.

Below are a few suggestions to consider:

• Determine who the documentation is meant for. Is it only for programmers? Is there a bigger market? Knowing this saves time since you know how much to discuss in advance.
• Write a brief yet detailed background that highlights the essential qualities of your product. This will help readers comprehend the purpose of the product and determine its relevance to the topics that are looking for.
• List along with your feature's main perspectives, taking care to note any dependencies on other features.
• Make sure to provide an expiration stamp to demonstrate to readers that the documentation is updated. Also, if you're using certain archives, make sure to provide the most recent versions.
• Be generous with the code examples, showing how to utilize the feature you designed and displaying the desired results.

Advantages of Software Documentation

• Encourages User Adoption: Well-written documentation helps your users get started quicker by providing more effective user onboarding and allowing them to make use of all of the features available in your program. When your customers can get the data they need without interrupting what they're undertaking, they're more likely to continue using your program, improving the rate of digital adoption for your product.
• Provides Educational Guidance to Developers: Product documentation allows developers to clarify the choices they made while developing the product. When they return to review the code afterward, guidelines might help them remember why they created it in the very first place. It is also highly valuable for other developers who may end up working on the same piece of software.
• Reduces the strain on software assistance teams: Software documentation benefits support workers by reducing the number of assistance requests & correspondence received from users. It also aids in troubleshooting as when information is readily available in the form of customer self-service options forms, they can provide faster and more detailed customer care.
• Customers are happier: program documentation helps your users comprehend all of the nuances of your application, helping them to be more successful and efficient. Customers who are satisfied with the software you produce become co-owners, investing in your company and becoming your most powerful advocates.
• Better Quality: Software documentation may help ensure that the software development process is dependable and predictable, as well as provide a record of the decisions and actions done during the creation process. This can help to improve the overall quality of the program by avoiding problems and errors.
• Documentation for products may help developers and other technical stakeholders work more efficiently by providing succinct, consistent, and up-to-date information on the product. Developers, for instance, may use the documentation to quickly access the knowledge they want without wasting energy attempting to analyze the source codes or figure out how the product works.

Disadvantages of Software Documentation

• Documenting software is time-consuming.
• Because the computer program development process is sometimes rushed, documentation changes frequently do not correspond to new code.
• Documentation has no bearing on the execution of an application.
• Documenting isn't always enjoyable, and it may be tedious at times.

Conclusion

In conclusion, writing excellent documentation is challenging, but it is worth making the time when you realize how much easier it will be for others to use your software's features. This, in turn, boosts the appeal of your good, making it more desirable and maybe spawning an ecosystem of people ready to spend their time fully understanding it and contributing to its growth, stability, and durability.