Technical writers and the business of writing design documents for complex, reactive systems

ABSTRACT

Technical writers can be effective members of the design team, assisting in the documentation of complex, reactive systems as they are being designed. This documentation will describe the internal structure and behaviour of the system from a designer's perspective. To keep such a description complete, accurate, and up-to-date, writers require a highly automated documentation process. This paper discusses the human and technical factors that contribute to successfully providing this type of writing service to the design community.

REFERENCES

• 1: Scott R. Tilley , Hausi A. Müller , Mehmet A. Orgun, Documenting software systems with views, Proceedings of the 10th annual international conference on Systems documentation, p.211-219, October 13-16, 1992, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada [doi>10.1145/147001.147033]
• 2: R. J. A. Buhr, Practical visual techniques in system design: with applications to Ada, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1990
• 3: Casselman, R.S. and Buhr, R.J.A. "Notations for Threads." Technical Report. SCE-92-07. Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton Univer.. sky, Ottawa, Ont., February, 1992.
• 4: Casselman, R.S. and Buhr, R.J.A. "Architectures with Pictures." Technical Report. SCE-92-08. Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont., March, 1992.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.7 Distribution, Maintenance, and Enhancement
          Subjects: Documentation

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Training, help, and documentation
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Synchronous interaction

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Human Factors