[Techtalk] documentation for projects

Megan Golding meggolding at yahoo.com
Thu Apr 17 08:04:46 EST 2003


--- Emma Jane Hogbin <emmajane at xtrinsic.com> wrote:
> I'm working on a project that's getting bigger and bigger. I
> don't want to leave all documentation writing to the very end, but
> I can't remember what people had to say about keeping the 
> documentation in sync with development, etc. I typically have good 
> comments in my code, but that's not documentation, it's just
comments 
> in my code. 

The trick to keeping up with development is to find a way to document
as you go that doesn't get in your way, is easy to update -- in
short, you need something informal.

My development group uses TWiki, a clone of the original Wiki. It's a
web-browser-based system used by distributed development teams around
the world. See http://twiki.org for an example.

Devlopers I work with write "design docs" on our TWiki. These design
docs resemble hallway conversations and notes on scraps of paper more
than the rigid CMM-level-5 design docs that we're taught are the
Right Way (TM) to document development.

The biggest advantage of informal documentation is that you're more
likely to keep it current than something big and unweildy that's
intimidating to update.

Best of luck with your project, Emma!

Meg

=====
Meg Golding    |    http://www.kalamitykat.com

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