Automated Repair Service Bureau: On-line Documentation: Mechanizing Develoment, Delivery, and Use

On-line Documentation: Mechanizing Development, Delivery, and Use By R. J. G L U S H K O and M. H. BIANCHI (Manuscript received June 17, 1981) We describe the design and development of on-line documentation for a minicomputer-based management information system. We outline the design choices, compare on-line documents with paper ones, and review human engineering and "software psychology" issues. On-line documents are accessed from any dial-up terminal. Document retrieval shares a common user interface with other information activities like report generation, trouble reporting, and interuser communication. Documents are "modular" with properties that make them easier to create, use, and maintain. I. INTRODUCTION Surveys confirm that documentation does not always meet the information needs of computer system users. Documents often arrive later than the system they are supposed to support. Related information may be scattered through several documents, inadequately crossreferenced, or inconsistent. The users may need to rewrite documents to reflect local policy, tariffs, or company organization, adding more costs and delays to the expensive and time-consuming documentation process. These problems with document timeliness and organization have grown increasingly severe in the last decade as computer systems have proliferated. The traditional procedures for developing and delivering paper documents have not kept pace with the increased information needed to support complex and volatile software products.