Creating Documentation
By carefully documenting VIs, you create VIs that are usable and maintainable. Thorough documentation reduces confusion and makes future modifications easier.
This book focuses on documentation that is specific to LabVIEW-based development. It does not address general documentation issues that apply to all software products.
The software you develop requires several documents. The two main categories for this documentation are as follows:
- Design-related documentation—Includes requirements, specifications, detailed design plans, test plans, and change history documents.
- User documentation—Explains how to use the software.
The style of each of these documents is different. The audience for design-related documentation generally has extensive knowledge of the tools that you are documenting. The audience for user documentation has a lesser degree of understanding and experience with the software.
The size and style of each document can vary depending on the project. For simple tools that are used internally, you probably do not need as much documentation. If you plan to sell the product, you must allow a significant amount of time to develop detailed user-oriented documentation to support the product. For products that must go through a quality certification process, such as a review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), you must ensure that the design-related documentation meets all the requirements.
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