System Development

11.9 System Documentation

11.9.1 The Aims Of Documentation

• To assist system design
• To ensure everyone understands how their aspect of the system should work
• To help greatly in system maintenance

11.9.2 The Documentation Contents

• A system specification

• System flow charts or data flow diagrams

• Program descriptions

• Structure diagrams, program flow charts and pseudocode

• Files or database descriptions

• Layouts for screen display and reports

• Current program listings

• Test data with expected results

• Clerical procedures manual

  This describes the activities that clerical staff undertake when preparing data for input to the system.

  It will also detail what action should be taken if an error occurs.

• Operating instructions

  This tells the computer operator how to run the program.

• Data preparation instructions

  This details how to enter data what format the data should be in.

11.9.3 Documenting A Software Package

This may include:

• A user manual
• A technical manual/operations manual
• Tutorials

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