Producing technical documentation in Scaled Agile software development : A case study

Abstract

Technical documentation is an important part of software development. Documentation that is delivered to the customer is a representation of the quality of the software as well as the company itself. This is why it is important to deliver high-quality customer documentation. In order to deliver high quality documentation, practices within the documentation process need to be functional and efficient. A common way of producing software is agile software development, which focuses on flexibility, iterative work, and collaboration instead of rigid planning. This thesis is conducted for a company that uses the Scaled Agile Framework, which provides agile methodologies for large enterprises. This thesis is a case study that examines different practices in documentation processes across multiple teams in multiple organizations. The study focuses on the production of customer documentation, starting from developers writing documentation inputs and ending in reviewing the final drafts. The theoretical framework of the study consists of literature on agile software development, Scaled Agile Framework, quality, and information development models, as well as the European standard for producing instructions for use. The study was conducted by two surveys, one for technical communicators and the other for software developers. The surveys enquired about practices related to documentation inputs, collaboration between technical writers and developers, documentation reviews and review tools, the Scaled Agile way of working, and utilizing customer feedback. The results of the surveys are used to create a set of recommendations to improve documentation processes at the target company. The recommendations include acknowledging documentation work in development schedules, keeping the end user and the customer documentation in mind when designing features, explicit communication between writers and developers, linking documentation tasks to development epics, conducting peer reviews systematically and regularly, having good documentation review tools, and gathering and utilizing customer feedback. The results also provide generalizability in terms of practices that work well within documentation processes at large organizations.