Hi

Could someone help me with the basic documents that have to be maintained during the SDLC of a product. I have gone through many sites and they provide such a lot of documentation that it does not seem to make sense.

Thanks
Rekha

Depends on what methodology you want to follow. Do not overdo it. There are large forests cut for documentation that was never read and even more for documentation that has never been up-to date.

The "extreme programming" methodology (see http://www.xprogramming.com) therefore states that you must not make any unnecessary documents and sees the source code as the most important documentation ('cause it is per definition up-to-date).

Best regards

Hi Don,

Don't we all just plan that we should maintain a few necessary documents. Somewhere down the line all the "I-think-its-important" documents just come along.

I do not seem to think that Xprogamming is right for my team. We are more of the traditional prototyping folks!!

I just need the elementary documents.

rekha

Well, the only document that is really needed in whatever form is, in my opinion, a document that describes what the customer wants and what you are going to deliver. That document is difficult enough as it is. If you don't have incremental development, the client must imagine the program beforehand, without much knowledge of programming and user interfaces. And you must imagine the useage beforehand, without much knowledge of the clients exact working methods and processes. Needless to say that communication is vital here. You may have to draw some screens or build a non-functional prototype, just to be sure you are talking about the same things.

Other documents (database schema, UML diagrams, etc.) may come in handy, but I would only make them if I needed them. The client will probably not ask for it, so they are for your own convenience only.

The same appies for the user documentation. For an intuitive application in an easy process, you don't need it. But for more complex applications or processes, a helpfile and/or a printed manual can be necessary.

Best regards