22. Installation Stage: Technical Documentation

This is intended for technical maintenance of the system. Engineers and software developers will refer to the technical documentation in order to make changes to the system after it has been installed.

Technical documentation is created from the very first stages of the development phase as the original project team set down the details as they build the system.

Typical content of technical documentation includes

• Source code with copious commentary explaining how that part of the code works
• Data structures used within the system
• File formats used
• File naming convention
• Validation ranges for data input
• Macro scripts, including comments to explain each stage of the macro
  Internal details of a database such as tables, relationships, records, queries used
• Navigation layout such as a site map or link map of the system

Other technical details to help with maintenance include

• Test logs and test results
• Security details of the system
• How to install the system
• How to backup and restore the system