Most complex software development projects have a number of related pieces of documentation:
- End-User documents such as user guides, quick reference cards, training guides
- Business documentation: business case documents, project updates, etc.
- Technical documentation: requirements, design documents, operations manuals, etc.
Sometimes it feels as if you are writing the same thing over and over for different audiences and purposes.
Instead of starting fresh each time, leverage what is already there. Now, that’s an obvious solution, but it can be harder to do that might first appear. When different people write materials and when a project goes on for a period of time, it’s easy to lose track of what is available and end up recreating it. Keep a master list of documents with their contents. The time it takes to do that pays off when you can find the information you need already written and ready for you.
Even if you don’t have a master list, here are a few tips to help with documentation on a typical software development project:
- Look for procedures in user guides and reword them for training materials and presentations. You can use them for test cases as well.
- Use the requirements as the source for things like lists of statuses, properties of fields, names of screens. You may need to update the requirements as things change during implementation, but again the time is worth it.
- Leverage the business case for internal and external marketing materials.
- Create PowerPoint presentations from diagrams and text in other business documents; just turn the text into short bullet points.
Before you plunge into a new document, always take the time to see if you or someone else has already invented that particular wheel!
