2. Overview
Creating good documentation
Building intelligence into the project
– Intuitive interfaces
– Error prevention
– Informative error messages
– Performance support
Technical Communication Help
Delivering a superb user experience
3. Bio
Seneca Tech Comm – Co-ordinator
Veteran Techwriter
Blogger, Vlogger
Gamer
www.senecatechcomm.com
4. A Reminder…
Project Life Cycle
1. Planning
2. Design
3. Development
4. Implementation
5. Maintenance
6. Stages in the
documentation
processDevelop
Design and
Plan
Review
Publish and
Maintain
• Research project
• User/task analysis
• Select media
• Write outline
• Develop plan
• Develop a prototype
• Estimate time, costs,
resources required
• Develop schedule
• Review
• Get approval
• Research
• Test product
• Write
• Layout
• Build navigation
tools (index,
searches, Table
of Contents, etc)
• Develop
illustrations,
screen shots,
samples
• Test
documentation
• Proofread
• Peer review
• Edit
• Distribute for
review
• Collect review
comments
• Conduct review
meetings
• Revise
• Repeat as
necessary
• Produce final
materials
• Oversee printing,
if needed
• Distribute
• Collect changes
for next version
7. Why documentation?
Users enjoy using the software
– Therefore more users
Developers can access the code
– Therefore better collaborative
development
Support liabilities are reduced
– Therefore lower support needs/costs
= More successful projects!
8. More info = fewer bugs
Documentation at the specifications
and design stage
Documentation during development
Documentation for end users
Documentation for customer support
9. Fixing at front end
vs. back end
Cost of Bugs
Specifications & Design Stage
Devt & QA Testing Stages
Delivered to Customer
11. Open source approach
Traditionally, PDFs and printed docs
Now, fluid, collaborative
documentation: FAQs, wikis, etc.
Community meshes interests and
expertise, covers all the bases
Allows browsing and searching
Allows publishing in multiple media
12. Collaborative Docs
Wiki advantages:
– Anyone can contribute
– Multiple editors and reviewers
– Good bug fixing!
– Leverage strengths and expertise
Wiki disadvantages:
– Ownership & responsibility
– Authority, “writing by committee”
– Unintentional sabotage
13. User Focus
Who is the audience?
–End users
–Other developers
–Multiple audiences
–Combination audiences
14. Task Focus
Task based vs. Feature based
Users want to accomplish tasks
Developers are enamoured of
features
What makes sense in your context?
– End user docs or API?
15. Techniques
Drafts – iterative development
– Wiki, with RSS feed for
changes/maintenance
Reviews – stakeholders
Approvals – “official” signoffs
Backups – history and rollbacks
Publishing – distribution
Maintenance – subsequent changes
17. Intuitive Projects
Interfaces contain information
– Labels, examples, tooltips
Error prevention
– Best practices, one correct way
Informative error messages
– What happened and how to recover!
Performance support
– Support task completion, workflows
18. Validate Input
Use masks and examples
– dd/mm/yyyy
– 42/23/8 should not be allowed
– Phone numbers, postal codes, credit
card numbers
– Automatic tabbing
20. Support Searching
Brainstorm terminology
– Synonyms
– Alternate forms of terms
• print, printing, printer
Organization & Structure
– Logical, task-based
21. Watch out for:
Code drift
– If the code that you have included in
your documentation changes, be sure to
update the docs
Scope creep
– Constrain the scope of the project so
you have time to complete the docs
Broken links
– Make sure linked articles don’t get lost
22. Watch out for:
“It works on my machine!”
Overloading volunteers – single
pages rather than all of it
Managing user input - comments
23. Change Control
Version Control – similar to source code
Bug database – make sure the doc
writers have access*
Flag items that need:
– Updated documentation when fixed
– Doc fix instead of a code fix
Prioritize doc fixes in the same way
as bug fixes**
24. Techwriters
Core competencies
– Communication, Localization, Internationalization
– Collaboration
– Technical affinity
• Self-taught, get quickly up to speed
– User affinity
• Put themselves in the user’s place
–Single-sourcing (DITA, DocBook, XML)
–Project management
25. Techwriters
Core competencies cont.
– Writing in plain language
– Simplifying complex concepts
– Organizing and structuring information
– Researching users and software
products
– Interviewing SMEs
26. SMEs
Subject Matter Experts
– Should focus on what they do best
– Often cannot explain things simply
– Benefit from Techwriters who have skills
to extract information from them
Back to the Future, 1985
27. Techwriters
Join project early
Advocate for users
Work closely with developers
Create documentation
– PDFs, online help, FAQs, etc.
Perform user testing
Assist with QA, Customer Support &
Marketing
28. Successful Projects
Have good documentation
Are well received by users
Are well supported by developer
communities
Lead to more opportunities