Friday, July 6, 2007

Document Development Life Cycle

Document development life cycle (DDLC) includes the various stages involved in structured document creation. It ranges from requirement analysis through maintenance of the completed document. The DDLC comprises of the following stages:

  1. Project Start-up
  2. Requirement Analysis
  3. Designing
  4. Developing
  5. Testing
  6. Publishing
  7. Maintaining


    Project Start-up
    Project start-up generally involves the creation of project plan. It includes understanding the project objectives and constraints in terms of time, quality, and cost. The scope of the project is clearly defined along with standards to be followed throughout the project. This phase also involves identifying key personnel responsible for providing, reviewing, and approving document content.

    Requirement Analysis
    Requirement analysis for documentation includes Audience Analysis, Need Analysis and Task Analysis. You try to understand the learning gap and come up with strategies required in achieving the project goal. You also decide the format and the delivery media for the document at this phase.

    Designing
    Design phase basically deals with collecting and organizing data. Design phase involves planning the instructional and media strategy and creating the course outline. High level design and low level design related to instructional and media strategy are created, verified, and validated.

    Developing
    Developing the document requires actual writing of the document, and integration of the various components (graphics, glossary, search items) of the document. This phase also involves document reviews and revisions and management of documentation issues. Now, the document is ready for testing.

    Testing
    Testing involves measuring the quality of the document. This involves review by quality analysts on parameters like correctness, completeness, adherence to standards, and usability.

    Publishing
    After fixing the all the testing bugs the document is ready for publishing. After all the hard work this phase relates to actual delivery of the document to its target audience.

    Maintaining
    Maintenance involves maintaining the deliverables. For example, it may involve content reuse analysis and elimination of redundant data from the document sets. It may also include template revision or inclusion of new product features.

    Understanding the DDLC helps in efficient and quality document creation. Happy Documenting!!!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice Artilce Thanks for sharing

Deepti Dani said...

Good article. Expecting to drop in more and more in the future.

Santosh Deshpande said...

Thanks for the nice article. Waiting for more!

Unknown said...

Hi,

Very interesting article. Hope to see many more ...

Padmapriya

Shwetha said...

can I know some opportunities in this domain???

sush said...

Hi,

This is Sushmita and I too have planned to get into technical writing. I found your blog very informative and helpful.I have completed 4 months in this field hence would say is just a beginner. Can you kindly visit my blog if possible and we could interact.

http://www.blogger.com/profile/14629803915452242187

Regards,
Sushmita

Fun time with kids said...

Hi I was also in this field but now i am looking for few projects that can be handled from home. can you help me.

Fun time with kids said...

Hi I am also in this field. can you help me to find more projects that can be done from home.

NIkhar said...

A very good read, good job

NIkhar said...

A very good read, good job

Unknown said...

A well compiled piece of information. Value for beginners as well as the experienced turks...to refresh one's knowledge.

Unknown said...

A very well compiled piece of basic information for freshers, as well as the experienced turks to brush up....