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Implementation and System Security

Technical documentation

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

What a maintainer needs that a user does not — the data structure, the module descriptions, the algorithms, the installation details and the reasons behind the decisions — and why it is written as the work is done.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What is technical documentation?

Key term

Name five items found in technical documentation.

Key term

Who is the audience for technical documentation?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is technical documentation?

    Model answer

    Technical documentation is the material written for the developers and support staff who will maintain, modify or reinstall a system.

  2. 2

    Name five items found in technical documentation.

    Model answer

    Technical documentation contains the system design and structure diagrams, the data dictionary, annotated program listings, the test plan with its results, and the hardware and software the system requires.

  3. 3

    Who is the audience for technical documentation?

    Model answer

    The audience is maintenance programmers, network and support staff, and any developer taking a system over from the team that wrote it.

  4. 4

    Why is technical documentation essential for maintenance?

    Model answer

    A programmer changing a system years later did not design it, and without the design and annotated code they would have to work out the whole structure before daring to change anything.

  5. 5

    What does a data dictionary give a maintenance programmer?

    Model answer

    A data dictionary gives the name, type, size and permitted values of every data item, so a programmer knows what a field holds before writing code that changes it.

  6. 6

    Why are algorithms and program listings both included?

    Model answer

    The listings show what the code does and the algorithms show what it was meant to do, and comparing the two is how a maintainer decides whether a difference is a fault or a deliberate choice.

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