Roadmaps are used as process documents to keep the course of development in sync with initial goals. Depending on the type of product roadmap, it can express high-level objectives, prioritization of tasks, the sprint timeline, or low-level details. A strategic roadmap is a high-level strategic document, that contains overall information on the project. Strategic roadmaps usually state a vision and long-term goals.
In the case of agile product development, a roadmap can be arranged in themes. Themes are multiple tasks that a team must complete and are somehow connected. Grouping the information around the themes makes a roadmap highly flexible and updatable, which is a great fit for sprint-based development.
The best advice concerning strategic roadmapping is to include only important information. Otherwise, you risk turning your roadmap into a clumsy scheme, difficult to both understand and maintain.
Source: productplan. A technology roadmap or IT roadmap is a low-level document that describes technical requirements and the means of technology implementation. IT roadmaps are quite detailed. They contain the information on each deliverable, explaining the reason for such a decision. Source: hutwork. A release plan is used to set strict time limits for releases. A release plan should focus on the actual deadlines without specifying release details.
It is highly recommended to use roadmap specific tools to create your own roadmaps. Online tools like Roadmunk provide various templates for product roadmaps, allow quick editing, and provide easy sharing across all team members.
Keep in mind, that a roadmap, depending on its type, can be a product document that states requirements. It also describes the process and guides your team through development. There are countless collaborative tools for software development teams. Those can help to state requirements, share information, and document features and processes:. As software documentation is easier to be used on the web, it has to be created in a proper format. Markup is used on GitHub and Reddit, and basically everywhere for web-based documentation.
So, here are some Markdown editors that can be useful for creating documents for your project:. Most roadmapping tools provide templates for different roadmaps to let you start working with this document right away. Basically, all the tools offer free trials and paid plans with differences in templates, number of roadmaps, and people you can share them with. The most popular tools for user experience design are prototyping tools that help create sketches, mock-ups, wireframes, and interactive prototypes:.
The process of creating API documentation is most often automated. Programmers or tech writers may write the documentation manually or use API documentation generators:. Professional tech writers often use specialized software for creating high-quality tech documentation.
Such tools are called content management systems , or CMSs, and allow for easier building, organizing, and managing various documentation. A CMS can operate different file formats, import and store content, and let multiple users contribute to content development. Some popular CMSs include:. Many of the tools described in the previous section provide a variety of templates for creating tech documentation. However, if your team is still struggling to find a qualitative template for some type of software documentation, here are more specialized sources to check out.
The following sources provide a wide variety of templates related to software development and project management:. Downloadable templates might be harder to manage and collaborate on, but can still get you started quickly. Here are some sources where you can find a number of roadmap templates:.
Software design documents are sometimes also called product or technical specifications. You can adjust one of these templates to fit your needs:. Today, as more businesses prefer to migrate to the cloud, there are some well-known trusted providers that offer training and architecture samples to facilitate operating in their environments:.
There are several common practices that can be applied to all the major types of documentation we discussed above. You should find a balance between no documentation and excessive documentation.
Poor documentation causes many errors and reduces efficiency in every phase of software product development. At the same time, there is no need to provide an abundance of documentation and to repeat information in several papers. Only the most necessary and relevant information should be documented. Try to keep your documentation simple and reader friendly.
It has to be logically structured and easily searchable, so include the table of contents. Avoid long blocks of text whenever possible and use visual content as it is easier to absorb information this way for most people.
You also have to remember who the document is written for. If it is for end-users, it definitely has to be written in plain language so that the readers are able to understand it without consulting the tech dictionary. However, if it is for your team tech specialists, make sure you provide all the accuracy and details they need to stick to the development plan and build the needed design and features. Use cross-links between documents, whether those are product pages or user guides.
Proper navigation through your documentation is important to give the reader the right understanding of a subject. Such practice can be considered user-flow, but for your project documentation. Documentation can be dedicated to internal or external usage.
In the case of external documents, it is better to provide a clear explanation of every term, and its specific meaning in the project. Documentation should communicate ideas in clear language to set lingua franca between stakeholders, internal members, and users. Proper maintenance is very important as documents that are outdated or inconsistent automatically lose their value.
It is a good practice to establish some sort of maintenance and update schedule. You can either make it at regular intervals, i.
Automated emails or release notes can help you follow the changes made by the development team. You can also use a version control tool to manage this process more efficiently. It will let you track changes made, retain previous versions and drafts, and keep everyone aligned. The agile method is based on a collaborative approach to creating documentation. If you want to achieve efficiency, interview programmers and testers about the functionalities of the software.
Then, after you have written some documentation, share it with your team and get feedback. To get more information try to comment, ask questions, and encourage others to share their thoughts and ideas. Every team member can make a valuable contribution to the documents you produce.
The person who generally does this job is called a technical writer. A tech writer with an engineering background can gather information from developers without requiring someone to explain in detail what is going on. He or she will be able to take part in regular meetings and discussions. The agile methodology encourages engineering teams to always focus on delivering value to their customers.
This key principle must also be considered in the process of producing software documentation. Good software documentation should be provided whether it is a software specifications document for programmers and testers or software manuals for end-users. Comprehensive software documentation is specific, concise, and relevant. You should rather focus only on those documents that directly help achieve project objectives. Yes, I understand and agree to the Privacy Policy.
You need to add documentation maintenance to your content. Put also troubleshooting guide and workflow to speed up resolution time by reducing time to find out source of the problem.
Thanks for the advice, Sudiro! Hi all, as former software developer, software user documentation designer and now owning a Tech Communication company, I would suggest to include tools born to help the technical writer.
We meet a lot of companies that start the user documentation journey just with editors. Or with general-purpose tools. With those systems, you can build various publications starting from the same content. High reuse of information. And you can easily manage multilingual user documentation. A very well constructed and informative article. I would also suggest that aspects of third-party solutions that make up the entire system be fully documented so there is no doubt about what makes up the entire solution, An aspect that I think is not covered so well as just how you bring all this together integrated with your database schema details in an organised and structured manner so that there … Read more ».
Furthermore, a software can have lots of features.. Thank you very much for your attention, this article is very useful!! Hi Giulia, thanks for the question!
Keeping this process organized requires guidelines, timeframe, and frameworks. In reply to your second comment, UX documentation would also cover functionality points including the required features. Estimates are created before the project starts and can be changed in the course of product development. But if a team is small, a project manager can write the documentation. Test Metrics XI. Defect Report XII.
Test Summary Report. A high-level company level document describes the principles, approach, and major objectives of the organization regarding Testing. A high-level document of the Test Levels to be performed and the Testing within those levels for an Organization. Table of Contents 1. A Sample Test Strategy Document. This is essentially the executive summary part of the plan. This is not a technical description of the software, but a Users view of the functions. Overall rules and processes should be identified.
A Sample Test Plan Document. This is the document that connects the requirements to the test cases. The connection or mapping of the requirements to test cases is many to many. This means that one requirement is tested by one or more test cases. Conversely, it is possible to have one test case addressing one or more requirements. Documentation standards in a software project are important because documents are the only tangible way of representing the software and the software process.
Standardised documents have a consistent appearance, structure and quality, and should therefore be easier to read and understand. Documentation process standards define the process used to produce documents example here. This means that you set out the procedures involved in document development and the software tools used for document production.
You should also define checking and refinement procedures to ensure that high-quality documents are produced.
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