All entries for Software documentation

Developer documentation: the necessary evil?

by Ulrike Parson on June 11, 2013

Anna M. is a software engineer. She has just started working for a company that develops custom add-ons for an out-of-the-box financial software solution. For developing the add-ons, Anna is supposed to use the API of the software. Little does Anna know about the API's structure, its interfaces, and its functionality. more...

Developing Software on a Beer Mat

by Ann-Cathrin Mackenthun on September 25, 2012

In agile software development we no longer create lengthy functional specifications or product requirements. We write our requirements as short user stories that could easily fit on a note card or a beer mat. Software requirements on a beer mat? How can they possibly make sense to the developer or the technical writer? more...

Documentation for Software Engineers

by Ulrike Parson on November 15, 2011

Writing technical documentation for software engineers is more than authoring code comments. In order to use an application programming interface (API) or existing source code effectively, software engineers require different types of information. For this reason, technical writers who author API documentation need to analyze the requirements of their target group. more...