SFT2203

Technical documentation for software engineers

Not offered in 1998

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