The Impact of the Technical Communicator on Software Requirements

Abstract

The disciplines of software engineering and technical writing have much in common. Both espouse a structured approach to product development, whether the product is a computer program or a manual describing that program. These disciplinary parallels suggest that technical communicators have more to offer software engineers than our usual writing and editing services. Specifically, this article describes four special services that technical communicators could provide during the first phase of software development, requirements. These services are audience analysis, functional analysis, human factors research, and requirements writing. The goals of these services are to improve the quality of software products and to make the documentation task more efficient.

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