User Documentation no quiz

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User Documentation(no quiz)

• Tori Bowman
• CSSE 375
• October 8th, 2007

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Agenda

• State of 375
• Risks
• User documentation

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State of 375

• Tomorrow
• Project work time
• Risk assessment help
• Wednesday
• HW4 due 1155 pm
• Thurs., Oct. 18th 1st status report
• Documentation due, Wed., Oct. 17th
• Maintenance project plan
• Risk assessment

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Risks

• If., then
• Impact to cost and schedule
• Risk matrix
• Mitigation strategy
• Plan to avoid/realize
• Responsibilities
• Revisit date
• Opportunities

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References

• Chapter 11.5 of SW Maintenance

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Definition

• User documentation refers to those documents
  containing descriptions of the functions of a
  system without reference to how these function
  are implemented
• Pg. 283

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(No Transcript)
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Other means of classification

• User manual
• How to use the system
• No details on how it does it or how to get the
  system to do it
• Operator manual
• How to use the system
• How to recover from faults
• Maintenance manual
• Functional specification
• Software design
• High quality code listings
• Test data and results

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How to determine the level of documentation
needed

• Development methodology
• Varies by organization
• Version of the system
• Upgrades vs. new development
• Category of customer
• ATS vs. BRS
• External regulations
• FAA
• FDA

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Why do it in the first place?

• Facilitate program comprehension
• High staff turnover
• Understand rationale, functionality, other
  development issues
• More is not always better
• Guide to the user
• Cost of help desk vs. users guide
• Complement the system

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CotD
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Effective documentation(not just whats said,
but how its said)

• Writing style
• Active voice
• Splitting text into manageable chunks
• Repeating complex explanations in different ways
• Document standards
• Quality assessment
• Procedures to encourage concurrent updates
• Good design methodologies
• Documentation support tools

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Questions?