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Technical & Business Writing

(ENG-315)
Shaukat ali
UIIT, Rawalpindi
Outline
1. Guidelines for Planning a Documentation Project
1. Start the Project
2. Perform the User Analysis
3. Design the Documentation
2. Summary
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Planning and Writing Your
Documents
Lecture: 15

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Guidelines for Planning a
Documentation Project
The documentation process
1. Start the Project
2. Perform the User Analysis
3. Design the Documentation
4. Plan the Documentation Project
5. Write the Alpha Draft
6. Conduct Reviews and Tests
7. Revise and Edit
8. Write the Final Draft
9. Conduct a Field Evaluation
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1. Start the Project
Most software and software documentation is
created by two kinds of teams:
The development team
The writing team
The essential difference between them is that on
development team you work as writer or editor with
professionals who do the programming, planning
and marketing the product. Its is also called cross-
functional team
On the other hand, in writing team consist primarily
of people who write, edit or test documents
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Start the Project (Continue)
The Development Team
Develops the entire product (software and documentation)
Different kinds of professional presents in this team with
their distinct responsibilities and skills
Product Developer
Project Manager
Market/System Analyst
Technical Specialist/ Programmer
Documentation Specialist
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Start the Project (Continue)
The Writing Team
Develop just the documents
Develops documents of more than one project at a time
The team members usually belongs to the same
background
They have to deal with developers, programmers and other
involved in the project
Manager
Lead Writer
Writer
Editor
Graphics Designer
Tester
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Preliminary Research
The developer or the market analyst do the
preliminary research by examining the user and the
industry for determining the need of the software
(justification of software project)
The research includes the following documents
Project Plans
Identify the long and short term goals and justification for the project
itself
Program specifications
Describes the nuts and bolts of program to be created to meet the
goals of project plan
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Preliminary Research (Continue)
The research includes the following documents
(Continue)
Market Analysis
Represents the market specialist report into the sales and market
potential of the software system
Information Plan
Identifies the kind of document needed by program users.
Management Plan.
Provides the details of the resources, people and schedule for
completing the project. Represents the day by day strategy for
completing the project

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Overview of the Online Help
Development Process
An online help system is a document that is
delivered as software using the stand-alone
WinHelp format, an HTML format, or PDF format
The stages of developing an online help system
User Analysis
Needs to focus on workplace activities of users
User need some sense of help system and technical knowledge
Mastering the Authoring Environment
It is computer program that allows you to create a help system
Linking the Software Program
Required to use special codes so that when the user calls the help
within program, it must respond with the appropriate help topic
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Overview of the Online Help
Development Process (Continue)
The stages of developing an online help system
(Continue)
Testing the Help system
Required to test the links as well as contents
Testing in Different User Environment
Online help system need to work across computer platforms
(Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix etc)
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Starting a Help Project
Selection of Right Authoring Environment
Single Source Capabilities
Write your help topics once and can use them in different
formats easily
Management Features
Ability to plan and keep track of project
Types of Help Formats Supported
Word document or PDF
Windows Help
HTML, XHTML, Microsoft HTML Help
Java Help
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2. Perform the User Analysis
The user analysis results in list of activities for each
of the primary users of the program, which in turn
allow you to identify which of the program operations
the user would need
The user analysis is key to the table of contents of
your manual and help
The activities in user analysis should allow you to
group the program operations for your table of
contents
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3. Design the Documentation
During the design phase you apply the three types
of document forms- tutorial, procedure, references
The design phase also includes documentation
outline and decision about the layout: pages, text
style, size, font and language
For online help you need to decide on types of
products you will produce (help. Training, guided
tour, template, messages, tips etc)
Make a detailed list of help topics and determine
their layouts
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Summary
Any Questions?