Software manual documentation

He knows that there are some legal requirements for the content of the manual and he wants a well designed and user-friendly instructional manual that contributes to a good customer experience. As he has some resources in-house, he does not want to outsource the full development of the manual.

I decided to walk him through the entire process and developed an instruction manual template for him. In a few emails, I told him exactly what to do and how to use the relevant user manual template for his product type, step-by-step. The results are as follows:. This article describes exactly the steps we followed. Although Philip used one of our paid templates, I have made a free template that you can use to achieve exactly the same results.

There is only one difference. The paid templates already contain the mandatory legal parts for machinery , toys, electrical equipment or medical devices , which means that you can skip step 6. The free template is a more generic one. When you choose to use the free one, make sure to follow the instructions from step 6. You can download the free template here:. Take the shortest way to a compliant manual. We have developed user manual templates for machinery, toys, medical devices and electronics that contain all legal content.

Before actually using the User Manual Template and the other tools that I developed for Philip, I wanted to make sure we have the same starting point. I provided him with some general information about user instructions and with some good examples of existing user manuals. A user manual is a technical communication document intended to give assistance to people on how to use a product. A good user manual assists users on how to use a product safely, healthily and effectively.

Besides the primary goal of a user manual to assist a user , secondary goals could be creating a better user experience and meeting legal requirements. A user manual consists of textual visual information illustrations, screenshots, tables etc. The user plays the central role when drawing up a user manual. A well-drafted user manual only provides that information that is relevant for the intended user of the product.

The user manual should contain both procedural information step-by-step instructions and conceptual information information the user needs in order to understand procedural information. A good user manual is concise and uses jargon-free language. They should contain information about what happens if a task is not done correctly. In some cases, a product is intended to be used by different types of users.

Typical user types are the end-user, installer, maintenance engineer and operator. Each user type needs a different approach in terms of language to be used, the tone of voice and provided conceptual information.

Different kind of products need a user manual. A product can be a system, tool, device, an instrument, a piece of software or an app. Depending on the type of product, a user manual might include things as:. The main tool that I developed in order to help Philip draw up his user manual is a User Manual Template. The template contains all the information and more from the list above. It complies with the requirements for his product.

The User Manual Template can be used for creating your manual for your system, tool, device, instrument, or for creating an installation manual, software manual, operational manual, maintenance manual or training manual.

Based on the first template for Philip, we have developed templates for the following product groups:. The user manual template is an MS Word document that can be printed or placed online. User manuals can be created using a variety of tools. Each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages. I will mention the most common tools below:. While drafting a user manual with help of the User Manual Template, it can be handy to have some good examples.

Through the following links you can download a user manual sample for documentation:. Ok, so now Philip has some basic knowledge about user manuals. When you want to write a manual that helps your user to solve problems, you first need to define who your user is.

This can be done by creating a user profile, also named a persona. With a persona, you make some reasonable assumptions about the characteristics of your user. This is not only useful for creating your user instructions, but it is an essential element at the start of the development of any product! As an educated industrial design engineer, this is how we started all our design assignments.

You can use the template yourself to determine who your user is. Action: Use the template to describe your user s. I am a HUGE fan of visualizing things. So if you want to take defining your user one step further, I would suggest you visualise your user in the form of a persona. When creating a persona you are giving your user a name, age et cetera, so it becomes a real person that represents your user. Typical problems might include: installing the product, using the product, using the product safely, maintaining the product and disposing of the product.

I asked Philip to identify the problems and solutions that his user might encounter during the product lifecycle. In order to do so, I created another template for Philip. Our user manual templates are compliant with this standard.

Action: Use this template and the instructions on the first tab to identify the problems your user might have during the lifecycle of your product and present their solutions. Philip has now identified the problems a user might have with his product during its lifecycle and he has now thought of the solution to solve the problem.

In other words: Philip has defined the topics for his user manual. Each topic can only be about one specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and must be able to stand alone. A user wants to solve one problem at a time. A topic will become a section in the user manual.

It can be a chapter or a sub- paragraph. As soon as a user is looking for an answer to his problem, he will use the table of contents to find out how to navigate to that answer. I asked Philip to structure the topics and define their place in the user manual, by assigning a certain topic to a specific chapter or sub- paragraph. You have now created the Table of Contents ToC. The ToC is the outline of your user manual.

Each topic in the user manual gets its own heading. The headings are the sub- titles that precede the actual text. They appear in the ToC, so the user can navigate to the needed information. Because the ToC entries play such an important role in helping your user find their way, and to help them skip what is NOT important, they need a bit more attention.

Basically, you should try and work with three levels of headings: first-, second- and third-level headings. The first-level heading describes what the entire chapter or section is about e. A third-level heading uses noun-phrases e. Packaging contents and Tools to be used. Meaningful Headings tab. Dependent on the market where your product is placed in or put into service, and dependent on the product group your product belongs to, specific legislation applies to your product.

These requirements also include requirements on the content of your user manual and safety instructions. In order to sell your product in a specific market, you should make sure that your user manual complies with these requirements. These two articles below will tell you how you can find out exactly which legislation applies to your product for the European and U.

Pro tip: when there is a Declaration of Conformity available already, you can find the applicable directives in there. Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives.

For his product, it means that the following information is required for the user manual for his product:. This standard has been harmonised in the EU. Compliance with harmonised standards provides a presumption of conformity with the corresponding legislation! I have also created an IEC checklist that can be used to double check that your user manual complies with this standard. In order to create an internationally compliant user manual, you should always make sure your manual meets the EU, US and requirements.

I asked him to adjust the table of contents of the template according to his own table of contents. Try to keep the document simple by making short sections for each element and supporting them with brief descriptions. There are different types of user acceptance testing in agile. We have outlined the most common:. A quality management plan is an analog of a requirement document dedicated to testing. This document sets the required standard for product quality and describes the methods to achieve this level.

The plan helps to schedule QA tasks and manage testing activity for product managers, but, it is mainly used for large-scale projects. A test strategy is a document that describes the software testing approach to achieve testing objectives. This document includes information about team structure and resource needs along with what should be prioritized during testing.

A test strategy is usually static as the strategy is defined for the entire development scope. A test plan usually consists of one or two pages and describes what should be tested at a given moment. This document should contain:. A test case specifications document is a set of detailed actions to verify each feature or functionality of a product. Usually, a QA team writes a separate specifications document for each product unit.

Test case specifications are based on the approach outlined in the test plan. A good practice is to simplify specifications description and avoid test case repetitions.

Test checklist is a list of tests that should be run at a particular time. It represents what tests are completed and how many have failed.

All points in the test checklists should be defined correctly. Try to group test points in the checklists. This approach will help you keep track of them during your work and not lose any. If it helps testers to check the app correctly, you can add comments to your points on the list. This document should describe known problems with the system and their solutions. It also should represent the dependencies between different parts of the system.

Their documentation informs developers how to effectively use and connect to the required APIs. API documentation is a deliverable produced by technical writers as tutorials and guides. This type of documentation should also contain the list of all available APIs with specs for each one. As the name suggests, user documentation is created for product users. However, their categories may also differ. So, you should structure user documentation according to the different user tasks and different levels of their experience.

Generally, user documentation is aimed at two large categories:. The documentation created for end-users should explain in the simplest way possible how the software can help solve their problems. Such user instructions can be provided in the printed form, online, or offline on a device.

Here are the main types of the user documents:. The complete manual includes exhaustive information and instructions on how to install and operate the product. It lists the hardware and software requirements, detailed description of the features and full guidelines on how to get the most out of them, example inputs and outputs, possible tips and tricks, etc.

The troubleshooting guide gives end-users information on how to find and resolve possible issues that might arise when using the product. For a detailed overview, check our article dedicated to user documentation. Some parts of user documentation, such as tutorials and onboarding, in many large customer-based products are replaced with onboarding training.

Nevertheless, there are still complex systems remaining that require documented user guides. User documentation requires technical writers to be more imaginative. Online end-user documentation may include the following sections:. Written in plain language with visual materials and step-by-step instructions included, user guides can become a powerful marketing tool and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Besides, to provide the best service for end-users, you should collect your customer feedback continuously. The wiki system is one of the more useful practices. It helps to maintain the existing documentation. You can create your wiki pages using a wiki markup language and HTML code. Usually, administration docs cover installation and updates that help a system administrator with product maintenance. Here are standard system administrators documents:. Process documentation covers all activities surrounding product development.

The value of keeping process documentation is to make development more organized and well-planned. This branch of documentation requires some planning and paperwork both before the project starts and during the development.

Here are common types of process documentation:. Plans, estimates, and schedules. These documents are usually created before the project starts and can be altered as the product evolves. Reports and metrics. Reports reflect how time and human resources were used during development.

They can be generated on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Consult our article on agile delivery metrics to learn more about process documents such as velocity chats, sprint burndown charts, and release burndown charts.

Working papers. The majority of process documents are specific to the particular moment or phase of the process. As a result, these documents quickly become outdated and obsolete. But they still should be kept as part of development because they may become useful in implementing similar tasks or maintenance in the future.

Also, process documentation helps to make the whole development more transparent and easier to manage. The main goal of process documentation is to reduce the amount of system documentation. In order to achieve this, write the minimal documentation plan.

List the key contacts, release dates, and your expectations with assumptions. Product roadmaps are used in Agile software development to document vision, strategy, and overall goals of the project. Roadmaps are used as process documents to keep the course of development in sync with initial goals.

Depending on the type of product roadmap, it can express high-level objectives, prioritization of tasks, the sprint timeline, or low-level details. A strategic roadmap is a high-level strategic document, that contains overall information on the project.

Strategic roadmaps usually state a vision and long-term goals. In the case of agile product development, a roadmap can be arranged in themes. Themes are multiple tasks that a team must complete and are somehow connected. Grouping the information around the themes makes a roadmap highly flexible and updatable, which is a great fit for sprint-based development.

The best advice concerning strategic roadmapping is to include only important information. Otherwise, you risk turning your roadmap into a clumsy scheme, difficult to both understand and maintain. Source: productplan. A technology roadmap or IT roadmap is a low-level document that describes technical requirements and the means of technology implementation. IT roadmaps are quite detailed. They contain the information on each deliverable, explaining the reason for such a decision.

Source: hutwork. A release plan is used to set strict time limits for releases. A release plan should focus on the actual deadlines without specifying release details. It is highly recommended to use roadmap specific tools to create your own roadmaps. Online tools like Roadmunk provide various templates for product roadmaps, allow quick editing, and provide easy sharing across all team members.

Keep in mind, that a roadmap, depending on its type, can be a product document that states requirements. It also describes the process and guides your team through development.

There are countless collaborative tools for software development teams. Those can help to state requirements, share information, and document features and processes:. As software documentation is easier to be used on the web, it has to be created in a proper format. Markup is used on GitHub and Reddit, and basically everywhere for web-based documentation.

So, here are some Markdown editors that can be useful for creating documents for your project:. Most roadmapping tools provide templates for different roadmaps to let you start working with this document right away.

Basically, all the tools offer free trials and paid plans with differences in templates, number of roadmaps, and people you can share them with. The most popular tools for user experience design are prototyping tools that help create sketches, mock-ups, wireframes, and interactive prototypes:.

The process of creating API documentation is most often automated. Programmers or tech writers may write the documentation manually or use API documentation generators:.

Part of your user journey mapping is identifying exactly what problem or goal the user has when using your product. You may have to break your users up into different segments as users may have different reasons for using your product.

Your template should be clear and easy to follow, and include the vital components needed for each document. Rigorously edit your documentation to streamline your content and make sure it includes only the most essential elements that users need to complete a task.

Each step of your instructions should include just a single task so users can work through your documentation step-by-step without getting confused. Make a note of where users get stuck in your documentation and revise your content accordingly.

Users should be able to make use of your documentation without reaching out to support. You should provide everything they need to know in your manual. When writing your user manual, make sure you include practical examples alongside your instructions to show users the results they can expect to see if they complete the task. Your instructions should clearly explain what users will see or hear and any feedback they might get from the product.

You may need to use symbols, icons and codes in your documentation to represent certain information. Document is perfect for creating user manuals for your users. You can customize your user manual with the Homepage Builder which allows you to add links, change colors, include categories from your manual, and much more.

An intuitive knowledge base software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document a try! FrameMaker has good support for rich media so you can create immersive content with images and video. You can seamlessly collaborate with subject matter experts using the Adobe Acrobat desktop and online services. It handles large documents very well that have styling complexities and uses a template-based authoring environment.

Markdown is a lightweight markup language used for creating formatted text in an editor. The advantage of using Markdown is that the syntax makes it as readable as possible when writing your documentation. A Markdown-formatted document looks like it could be published without having been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.

Paligo is a Component Content Management System for teams. It provides an end-to-end platform for intelligent content and a single source of truth, so you can author your user manual with content reuse and structured authoring. Paligo delivers topic-based authoring and smart content reuse so you can release your documentation in a fraction of the time it normally takes to build a finished product. You only need to write your content once and then you can repurpose it with the click of a button.

Paligo comes with versioning designed for content authors. User manuals are an indispensable part of your product or service and you should devote appropriate amounts of time and effort to its creation.