Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1

Micro link TVET College

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORT SERVICE
Level II

LEARNING GUIDE # 06
Unit of Competence: Update and Document
Operational Procedures
Module Title : Updating and Documenting
Operational Procedures
LG Code : ICT ITS2 M02 L01 006
TTLM Code : ICT ITS2 TTLM02 0817

LO 1: Assess technical and user documentation

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Author: IT Experts
 Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1
INTRODUCTION Learning Guide # 06

This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following
content coverage and topics –

 User and Technical Documentation Review

 Accuracy Review of Technical and User Documentation

This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page.
Specifically, upon completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to –

 Review current version of technical and user documentation based on the latest operational
procedures.
 Compare accuracy of technical and user documentation with current system functionality.
 Identify and document inaccuracies for future reference.

Learning Activities

1. Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.

2. Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1” in pages 3-6.
3. Accomplish the “Self-check” in pages 7.
4. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity # 1.
5. Read the information written in the “Information Sheet 2” in pages 8-11.
6. Accomplish the “Self-check” in page 12.
7. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Lap Test”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity # 2.
8. Do the “LAP test” on page 13 (if you are ready) and show your output to your teacher. Your teacher
will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory, your teacher shall
advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to Learning Guide 7.

 Your teacher will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory, your
teacher shall advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to the next topic.

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Author: IT Experts
 Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1

Information Sheet 1 User and Technical Documentation Review

Documentation may refer to the process of providing evidence ("to document something") or to
the communicable material used to provide such documentation (i.e. a document).

Documentation in ICT field: The following are different types of documentations usually seen in
the ICT field.
1. Architectural and Design documentation.
2. Technical Documentation.
3. User Documentation.
4. System Documentation.

User and Technical documentation

1. User documentation - Designed for the end user of the computer hardware or
software. It may not be a computer specialist

Examples of user documentation

 instructional materials which usually come with the hardware or software such as
installation instructions or a troubleshooting guide.
 training materials designed to teach the user the skills required to use the hardware or
software. Examples include tutorials and user manuals.
 reference materials designed so users can look up a particular task. An example is a quick
reference guide.
 policies and procedures of an organization. This documentation helps all staff and
management work to the same guidelines and rules.

2. Technical documentation - "Technical documentation" is the generic term for documentation

with regard to a product. People mainly associate the term with the documents and
information that are passed on to the public by the manufacturer.

It is also a documentation that is produced for a person who has enough expertise in a
particular computer system to support or maintain that system.

Examples of technical documentation

 User instructions
 Operating instructions
 Servicing instructions
 Installation manuals
 Software manuals

The term 'technical documentation' refers to different documents with product-related

data and information that are used and stored for different purposes. “Different purposes”

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 Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1
mean: Product definition and specification, design, manufacturing, quality assurance, product
liability, product presentation; description of features, functions and interfaces; intended, safe
and correct use; service and repair of a technical product as well as its safe disposal.

Instructions versus directions versus manual versus handbook versus …

Often, there is still confusion about whether something should be called operating
instructions, user manual, user guide, user directions, operating manual etc. pp. The standards
for technical editors and the law makers are also not consistent in their terminology. Let's try
to sort it out from a linguistic point of view:

 "Directions" is derived from "to direct": Here it is the superior who directs the
subordinate, i.e. the boss directs the staff member (or parents their child). Hence, user
directions can only be given internally (within the company). Accordingly, the user
direction is the document that details the procedures for a specific workplace. It takes
into account the specific demands and requirements within the company. This makes it
clear that user directions cannot be supplied by the manufacturer of the product: the
manufacturer has no knowledge of the company internals of the user.

 "Instructions" is derived from "to instruct". Somebody capable of something already

instructs someone else who wants to learn just this. Here two entities meet eye-to-eye,
e.g. manufacturer and user. Therefore, the instructions are the document that
communicates, how to employ and use the product. When "instructing" however, you
do not really communicate any theory, i.e. the description of the product is — strictly
speaking — not part of the instructions. The term "instructions" is independent of the
publishing medium, it does not tell you whether it comes on paper or online

 "User instructions" or "user manual": The first word of each group already says it —
it is about using the product. Because "manual" is usually associated with a "book",
"user manual" is the book, in which the usage is described. The publication medium is
specified. On the other hand, the term "user instructions" is media independent.

 Operating instructions / operating manual: Here again it is all about the first word in
the phrase — it is generally about the operation. This is more general than just using
something; it starts with transport and storing, is then followed by installation and
commissioning up to using the product, continues with cleaning, service and repair and
ends up with dismantling and disposal. A document describing operating should
therefore be correspondingly comprehensive (not forgetting the safety information).

Review current version of technical and user documentation

Why Documentation Review?

 Overall improvement
 Accurate and up-to-date documents
 Increases credibility
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 Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1
The Need
 Technically correct document
 Concise Information
 Avoid Chaos/disorder
 Timely Delivery
 Satisfaction

Review Objectives
 Evaluate the documented information
o Accuracy = Correctness
o Completeness = wholeness
o Conciseness = shortness
 Reduce the defect percentage
 Improve the quality of documents
 Focus on correcting the defects

Types of documentation reviews

1. Peer Review
o Review by people who have coordinated knowledge and skills.
 Provide a list of exactly what you need them to review
o Assess peer review practice
o Prepare procedure documents
o Formulate a program agenda
2. Presentation Review
3. Review amongst the technical writers
4. Subject matter expert review
5. Review for technical information
6. Overall Review
7. Review by the testing team for detecting defects.

The Review Process

1. Plan the review process
2. Develop a clear, focused charge for each reviewer to identify important issues and invite
suggestions for improvement.
3. Prepare and maintain a review record.
4. Make recommended changes to document and respond to the reviewer’s comments.

Review Focus

 Before circulation
o Review the document for readability and clarity.
o Review for correct English usage
o Review and evaluate the technical content
o Make a reviewers checklist
 Focus on the technical review and not on editorial review
 Verify the technical accuracy of all procedural steps.
 Verify the accuracy of all screen captures in the document.
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 After review
o Review the sent checklist
o Take a positive approach
o Maintain a tracking list
o Decide and let the reviewer know which comments would be incorporated
o Call a meeting if required.
o Publish the final copy.

Challenges
 Involving Team (Let us do it)
 Getting Proper reviews
 Handling Last Minute Changes

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Information Sheet 2 Accuracy Review of Technical and User Documentation

Comparing accuracy of technical and user documentation’s with the current document (functionality will
be treated later)

Make sure the facts as stated in the document are correct, helpful, and on topic.

To do a technical accuracy review, you really need to know your subject matter, probably as well or better
than the original author. Use whatever other documentation is available for your subject, including man pages,
program documentation, other printed books, etc. You might also use mailing lists on the topic, asking for third
parties to verify certain facts of which you are in doubt.

When doing this type of review, consider if the information is only valid for certain types of hardware or
software. If this is the case, make sure to note the limitations of the document within the document, either within
the abstract or as a note at the beginning of the document. For example, if the solutions in the document only are
relevant for one type or brand of hardware, make sure that that limitation is defined. This will keep readers from
trying to apply a certain type of technology to an application or situation where it will not work.

The same should apply for the prerequisite knowledge of the reader. If prior knowledge of a subject is
assumed or required, the author should say so somewhere at the beginning of the document, and it's helpful to ask
that authors provide a Resource section for further reading, to bring readers that much closer to the required
information.

Language Review
Because writers come from all types of backgrounds, there may be problems within the documentation that
need to be fixed. Writers may be very knowledgeable in their subject areas but not great writers, or they may be
excellent writers but not completely fluent in the language of the document. The language review addresses these
types of problems by focusing on language issues that make the document easier for the user to read and
understand. Some of the problems that may occur within the document are poor sentence structure, grammar,
organization, clarity, and spelling.

If you are doing a language review, you should be fluent in the language and the structure of the language.
You want to consider both the logic and grammar of the document. Your primary goal in a language review is to
identify and correct areas that could lead to confusion for the reader/user of the document. To this end, you can
most certainly use language and grammar references such as dictionaries and handbooks when in doubt.

Although this review does address the structure and delivery of the language, you should not attempt to
purge the document of individuality and personality in an attempt to make it "sound better" or more technical.
Stilted or overformal, humorless language and structures are not the goals here. Again, your goal should be to
make the document clear, unambiguous, and correct in spelling and grammar.

Items to evaluate:
 Spelling. Spelling should conform to a standardized English spelling of terms. For words that are new to
the language and not yet standardized (for example technical Linux terminology that is generally accepted
in the community), follow the most common spelling for the term.

 Grammar. For the purposes of this review, grammar should address issues such as standards of
subject/verb agreement, pronoun/antecedent agreement, etc

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For example, to say, "You will need to set several parameters in the config file to make it compile correctly.
The ones you choose to set make a big difference."

 Use of capital letters. The document's title and section headings may follow one of two conventions, but
must be consistent throughout. Titles may either capitalize only the first word, or may capitalize each word.
In the second case the only words not capitalized in a title are prepositions, articles, and proper nouns
which would not be capitalized.

 Clarity. Judgments on clarity are sometimes difficult to make. One successful strategy in evaluating clarity
is asking the question "If I did not already know this information, would the explanation be clear from this
document." If it is confusing to you and you already generally understand what the author is trying to say,
then there is a good chance that the explanation is really confusing for someone reading the document for
the first time. If you run across this situation, and you don't really know how to correct the technical
explanation, or you are afraid your changes might affect the meaning of the document, ask for help from a
technical expert. If no technical expert is available or no one responds to your requests, note the needed
changes in the review and mark that these concerns need to be addressed in the technical review.

 Organization. In some cases the document would really benefit from a different structure. You should
address these issues when they interfere with the understanding of the information within the document. If
a document gives background information after a procedure has been performed, this may well be too late
for the reader to fully consider the information he or she needs before performing the task. Look for
document organization that might confuse or mislead the reader. These will be the types of issues you want
to address. Once these are identified, it may be worthwhile to let the author know your rationale and
discuss major changes with him or her.

 Sentence Structure. To some extent, sentence structure issues are discussed in the grammar section;
however, there are some additional issues that are not grammatically incorrect but do interfere with the
readers comprehension of the material. One of the most noticeable of these is stacked prepositional
phrases.

Stacked prepositional phrases become a problem when the document's readability suffers because it
becomes less and less clear what the subject and action of the sentence are. In some cases more precise
descriptors are needed or sentences need to be changed from one long sentence that is hard to
comprehend, to two or three more easily read sentences.

 Readability. This area is somewhat subjective. What passes for fairly readable material to one person
might be confusing to someone else. Because this is a value judgement you should be cautious when
marking up an author's work for readability. Realize when basing a judgment on readability that you might
be dealing with preferences of style. In evaluating readability you must consider whether or not the way
the document is written truly interferes with the readers understanding of the information. If the answer
you come up with is "No, but it doesn't sound like I think it should." then you should probably not re-write
the text to make it sound better to you.

 Title. The title should be in proper title case. The general principle for this is that all words are capitalized
in a title except prepositions and articles (an article will be capitalized if it is the first word in the title).

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Author: IT Experts
 Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1
 Date Formats. Dates should be in standard ISO format, which is YYYY-MM-DD.

 Definitions of Acronyms or Slang. Terminology and language within the realm of computer technology
changes rapidly. In reviewing documents you may find that many of the terms that are being discussed are
not valid words in any dictionary or technical reference that you are familiar with. Terms that are less
familiar should be defined immediately following the first instance of the term. Slang should be replaced
with more common terminology if the slang will causes the reader to be confused by the connotation or
denotation of the term.

Remember that readers using the document may not come to English as a primary language and, therefore,
you should do your best to make sure that the document is as easy to understand as possible.

 Latin abbreviations. Avoid using abbreviations. e.g. (for example), et al. (and others), etc (and so on) and
i.e. (that is) should always use the English equivalent.

Metadata and Markup Review

In order for these scripts to work, documents must use valid markup and include specific metadata.

Markup is a modern system for interpretation of a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from
that text. Example XML, Pdf, docs …

Metadata is information about the document and includes author information, copyright, license and a
revision history of the document.

Required Markup

 DocBook XML version

 PDF
 CHM (Compiled HTML Help): The CHM file type is primarily associated with 'HTML Help' by Microsoft
Corporation.

Required Metadata

The following elements are all required:

 articleinfo or bookinfo
 Title. Every document must contain a short, descriptive title. It should be reasonably unique; check other
documents in the collection to make sure your document's title is distinctive from all other documents.
 Abstract. A short description of your document must be included in the abstract. This description is
typically one or two sentences in length.
 Author. Every document must have an author. If there are multiple authors, you may use authorgroup. If
the document was prepared by an organization with no individual author, please use authorcorp instead.
 Editor. Every new document must go through the review process and have a technical, language and
metadata/markup review editor listed

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 Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo1
 pubdate. The date of publication for the document. The date should be in the ISO standard of YYYY-MM-
DD.
 Copyright. Authors will always retain the copyright to any documents they submit to the LDP. Although it
is not required, a copyright notice may be included. A license, however, is always required.
 Revision history (revhistory). A summary of revisions should be included in the document. The initial
release of a document should be marked up as Version 1.0. Subsequent updates should increment the
version number appropriately. The preferred format is Major.Minor.Bugfix, where each section is an
integer. Some authors use Alan Cox style versions (for example 1.4pre-3) and some include additional
information (for example 1.3beta). This is acceptable but not encouraged. The most important thing is that
we have a version number so we know which version we are dealing with! Once a document goes through
review it should advance in minor or bugfix version number, depending on the amount of change
introduced.
 License and Legal Notice. A license is required.
 email.
 Acknowledgements and Other Credits. Very few, if any, documents are written only by one person. It is
good form to thank those who helped you with either the writing, research, testing or reviewing of your
document. If someone added markup, or translated your document to another language they should also be
given credit.

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Author: IT Experts