Importance of Documentation in Application Support

Application Support software, provides support to IT services which resolves the issues and runs software in a successful manner. In other words we can say that application support software enables people to execute their responsibilities within their relevant role in the business.

Application support Analyst deals with people both on a business and IT level of understanding. They act as the technical point of contact to fix their application and systems issues or incidents. These issues are production (live) issues and needs to be resolved immediately. They need Application Support – the Analysts deliver that need in the form of a SERVICE. 

Support plays an important role in software engineering. It consumes the greatest portion of expenses in the software life cycle. The problem in modifying software systems is understanding the intent of the original program. Although tools that support program comprehension on source code level are of great help, adequate documentation is the most effective way to support these comprehension processes. Software documentation is important for maintenance as it gives clear picture of the goal which is to be achieved by the programmer.

Types of Documentation and its Applications:

• Support Documentation

This type of documentation is used to establish traceability of the tickets raised and resolved with regard to what has been done, who has done it and when it has been done. Thus, this type of documentation lays the foundation for traceability and history for entire support project.

• Test Documentation

Test documentation is an artifact which describes test planning, test design, test execution, test results and conclusions drawn from the testing activity. In application support, at times a ticket is raised by the users which requires intense testing. If a proper test scripts and test cases are created for that testing, it will help other users in better understanding of the functionality. Documents like test plans, issue logs, acceptance test documents etc. comes under the category of test documentation

• System Documentation

This type of Documentation is highly technical in nature. Support Programmers use it as a reference library. Usually it is created by the programmers using tools like sandcastles which describes the functionality of the application in codes. It is used in support & maintenance usually where there are bugs/issues that require code level changes. It contains documents like source code documentation, database documentation and API documentation which are seldom used by the support programmers while resolving the issues.

• Team Documentation 

This type of documentation provides the clear picture of the objectives which are to be achieved in the support project. Formal communication done between the team member and client comes under this type of documentation. Team Documentation includes documents like plans & schedules, review report, status report, minutes of meeting and checklists. 

Challenges of Documentation:

Good documentation should be simple to read and easy to understand. A document must be contain clear logic at all stages of the document and should work well for reader who do not read complete document. Documentation presents complex ideas. A good documentation must:

• Describe how a tool or product must operates 
• Describe how to use the product 
• Describe possible use and configuration of the product and software

Often these goals and requirements conflict with each other and present substantial challenges in maintaining quality of well-organized document.

Conclusion:

For a support programmer reliable documentation is always must. The existence of well written and organized documents helps to keep the track of all aspects of an application and improves the support service which is provided to the application.

About Author:

Naman Kharbanda is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: naman.kharbanda@spluspl.com