Guidelines for documentation of support and maintenance

Software documentation is any documentation produced to describe various aspects about a particular software system This makes the life of all the members associated with the software easier. It may contain anything from requirements documentation, design documentation, Testing documentation , API documentation, build notes, user manuals or help content. Documentation is a very critical process in software development and maintenance. Poorly documented systems can make it difficult to understand how the system works, making it difficult to carry out activities such as training users, transfer knowledge to new technical teams or to identify and fix problems.

As part of software maintenance, it is important to ensure that software documentation is updated to reflect any changes to software.  Documentation that may need to be updated as a result of changes to software includes user manuals, software technical documentation, user manuals and training materials.

Here are some examples of technical software product documentation that should be kept updated:

• Product requirements document
• Product design document
  
• Technical architecture documentation
  
• Test documentation
  
• Source code documentation
  
• Product roadmap

Here are some examples of user product documentation that should be kept updated:

• Quick start guide
  
• User manual
  
• Installation manual
  
• FAQs and troubleshooting tips