Technical documentation for software engineers
J Miller
4 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Caulfield
*
Prerequisites: SFT1102
Objectives At the completion of this subject students should understand technical documentation in a software engineering environment; be able to construct quality printed and on-line documentation, and appreciate the differences between the two; and have gained experience in current types of technical documentation media.
Synopsis Problems with paper-based and on-line documentation; types of technical documentation used in software engineering; document specifications; minimalist design philosophy; graphic design of technical documentation; the context of technical writing; the writing process (analysis, planning, generation, testing, revision and maintenance of written texts); document publication techniques (including HTML, LaTeX and Winhelp); the role of hypertext, hypermedia and markup languages in technical documentation; small-volume and large-volume hypertext; collaborative hypertext; intelligent hypertext.
Assessment Assignments and practical work: 85%
* Examination: 15%
Prescribed texts
Brockman R J Writing better computer user documentation: From paper to hypertext version 2.0, Wiley, 1990
Recommended texts
Marcus A Graphic design for electronic documents and user interfaces Addison-Wesley, 1992
Rada R Hypertext: From text to expertext McGraw-Hill, 1991
Simon A R and Simon J S The computer professional's guide to effective communications McGraw-Hill, 1993
| Published by Monash University, Clayton, Victoria
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