TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: documenting software development processes From:"Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)" <diane_evans -at- merck -dot- com> To:"'Viorel Lupu'" <pidgin -at- ua -dot- fm>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:43:55 -0500
>My question is what approaches, technologies, and standards are typically
used
>to document and standardize the software development process and what would
be
>an ideal solution for a small software company? I am concerned mostly with
the
>documenting side, without going too much into project management. Any help
>would be appreciated.
This is what I do for a living -- documenting the software development
process.
Before you get started with technologies and standards, you need to first
identify the approach that your company takes to building software. Many
models are described in various literature, such as the waterfall,
iterative, and agile development.
Once you have defined your approach, define the documents that will mark
each phase of the model. For example, we have a "Project Charter" which
defines how a project will be managed, a "Requirements Specification" which
defines the customers' expectations, a "Design Specification" which
describes how the software was built, and a "Test Plan" which defines how
the software will be tested to ensure all requirements have been met.
After defining the approach and the documentation, you can now find software
which meets your needs. Do you need to track signatures electronically? Do
you need software to keep track of previous versions of a document? Your
company may have specific requirements for document control and management.
This isn't a quick and easy process. It took me over a month to just define
our approach for development, and another three years to get to the state
where we are today -- some, but not all, of our processes are controlled.
More good information is available at www.stickyminds.com. A good reference
book is "Software Requirements" by Karl Wiegers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice: This e-mail message, together with any attachments, contains information of Merck & Co., Inc. (One Merck Drive, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, USA 08889), and/or its affiliates (which may be known outside the United States as Merck Frosst, Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD and in Japan, as Banyu) that may be confidential, proprietary copyrighted and/or legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity named on this message. If you are not the intended recipient, and have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by reply e-mail and then delete it from your system.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot-
