Project Documentation
Basic Principles of
project documentation:
The basic
principle of documentation in a report is very simple. Readers should be able
to understand tour work and grade tour project by just reading tour report
without you. For this purpose, there are some points to keep in mind. Your report
should be:
Accomplished:
Readers of your report
should be able to tell what you have accomplished. For example you can include
the following ideas if they are relevant to your problems. What problems you have
worked on, what assumptions you have made in your work, how much you have
accomplished, what parts you did not finish (don’t try to hide the problems
because nobody’s work is perfect), how well you did, how important your work
is, why it is important, where it can be applied, what kinds of difficult
problems you had during your work, what the remaining problems are, what parts
can be done at next steps. Etc.
Readable and
understandable
The report should be easily
readable and understandable. No matter how significant your work may be, it is
not worth full credit, If you cannot convince readers, use clear and concise English.
Keep in mind you should write to communicate with readers, not with documents yourself.
Well organized:
The report should be well
organized. It should have clear logical sequence. Organize your work in
chapters, sections, and sub-sections with meaningful headings. Include diagrams
tables, or figures whenever needed.
Self-contained
The report
should be self-contained. If possible, don’t ask readers to look around, unless
you have to do so.
Best documentation
principle
Don’t wait until you
complete your project. Create incremental documentation. Write and make notes
whenever you have fresh ideas.
Contents of Report
·
Application development
·
A summary of the problem and an overview of your
work.
·
Detailed problem description
1. Problem
descriptions
2. Assumptions
3. The
way you obtained your information
4. Your
methodology to solve the problem
·
Conceptual
design
1.
ERD(Entity-relation diagram)
2.
Data Dictionaries
3.
Required operations of frequently expected
queries, reports
·
Implementation
1. Organize
of your overall program
2. Brief
explanation of each module
3. Specify
previous work and your work
4. How
to run the program
5. Indexing
schemes
6. Limitation
of the work
·
Conclusion
1. Summary
of your work including limitations
2. Lessons
learned
·
References
·
Appendix
1. Sample
input
2.
Program listing
3. Sample
output
4.
Graphical user interface (GUI) layout and its
screen shots
5.
User documentation
a)
Installation instructions
b)
README : explaining how to interact with your
system
6.
Division of work (i.e. each member’s
contribution)
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