Mapping DDLC to SDLC

This blog is aimed at the project managers in the software development arena by a technical communicator. It  urges them to include technical communicators right from the feasibility study phase of project management.

• Meeting difficulties as you install, configure or operate new software? 
• Approached your colleague or contacted the concerned help desk? 
• Ever tried reading through the complete user manual that accompanied that new software we successfully installed on our notebook ? 

True, user manuals are referred only when your colleague in the next cubicle is not available and whose assistance you rely upon largely when you are stuck at some point, or when the help desk operator is not available or too busy to attend to your last-minute-resort-frantic-calls . But, when you design software for your client, technical documentation is a very cost-effective method to reduce the number of help desk calls to your support team.
 
So, speaking about user documentation, technical authors (Information Developers or Technical Writers) who design, develop, deliver and maintain these help notes via any media, print or online are either involved in the project more often than not during the final stages, when the product is almost ready for release, viz alpha, or approached just before the beta release. This proves to be a very frustrating experience for and drains the energy out of the technical authors involved, since these envoys who educate your end-users about your product are themselves left with little time and resources to grasp the larger picture…read architecture down to the nitty-gritties of operating instructions and tips, cautions, copyright notices, indexes et cetera…the list can be never-ending. This usually results in delivering only the release notes followed by readmes and half-baked technical documents. Like I have mentioned, this may turn out to be an unintentional callous approach to the services that you provide to your client, help systems and manuals being so cost-effective and critical, and when there is no help desk and support team to assist your clientele, ignorance about the features that the developers so thoughtfully designed might attribute to losses your business may eventually suffer, sooner or later!

Hence, designing a help system for the software applications you develop is as important to your end users as the indispensable tool box that accompanies the new gadgets you purchase. While the IT department painstakingly works on planning, designing, developing software, it often overlooks this crucial aspect that the end users consult when they require assistance. This aspect usually should be taken into account right from the project initiation phase of your SDLC. Educating the fraternity in software organizations about mapping information development that results in the traditionally termed as or may I use the more familiar term ‘Help’, to the corresponding phases of the customized SDLC process that your organization follows while they design software, is as critical a step as creating the product itself. Ignorance about the operability of your product and its features will lead your customers to lose faith in your product who might in turn explore newer avenues, unaware that you and your team had long ago thought about and implemented the features they wished had been a part of the product they installed on their own computer!

I write technical literature
On reams and reams of digital paper...

Transforming the code from the technical maze
Into easily comprehensible users’ language!

You don’t have to worry about constant calls for tech support
When with users my documents have established a rapport… :)

My next blog is available at http://jyoch.blogspot.in/.

You can reach me at jyotiapply@hotmail.com.