The Art and Business of User Documentation

Producing good user documentation isn’t trivial — but it is one key deliverable that can dramatically enhance a developer’s professional image while improving the usefulness of the solution. Developers often consider solution documentation a drudgery — or worse, a time-consuming activity with little return on effort. This session convincingly explains why including documentation as a standard practice is an asset rather than a liability, and that it doesn’t need to be a huge resource drain if it is planned for and executed during the development process.

This session presents seven methods that can be applied — individually or in concert — to produce resources that truly help the end user, as well as anyone needing to support the solution. User documentation can be both a separate document and an integral part of the database solution it describes. This session presents these in a framework where you can choose which best matches your needs. You’ll learn about the pros and cons of each, and get concrete visual examples and best practices.

Further, as part of the session materials, you’ll get samples upon which you can base your documentation. Creating a self-documenting solution is also important in multiple-developer scenarios, when others must understand how each portion of the solution works. You’ll learn about specific habits to adopt as development is going on… habits that will produce ROI with greater efficiency — not to mention helping to retain your sanity.

Learn how adopting just a few good habits now will have huge payoff later.

Presented at the 2007 FileMaker Developer Conference  (Foundation Track)
Session FUN211: Profiting from Solution Documentation

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