Effectively Managing

Documentation for Embedded Linux™

Projects

Jeffrey Osier-Mixon

Who Am I

• Technical writer, project manager, developer

• Open source experience• Embedded and bare-metal experience• Enterprise software experience• Consumer electronics experience

http://www.jefro.net

Who Are You

• Technical writers and editors• Project managers for open-source

projects• Project managers for Linux-based

proprietary products• Engineers stuck with writing tasks• Ten-year-old robotics enthusiasts

Goals of this Presentation

• The importance of solid documentation

• The four critical elements of documentation

• Meeting expectations of readers• The importance of effective project

management• Emerging fashions

The importance of solid documentation

What is documentation?

• “What you tell other people about your project”

• I emphasize solid rather than good documentation:– Complete and correct– Appropriate to audience– Answers the reader’s questions

• Spectrums of complexity, openness, and familiarity in presentation—always based on audience

What makes it solid?

• Primary education & training—concepts• Primary descriptions behavior and

features—tasks• Primary definitive organized resource

list—reference• Primary line of support—

troubleshooting

(foreshadowing the four critical elements)

Who are the readers?

• Partners—product manufacturers or others who turn your project into a product to resell

• Developers—organizations or people who use your project as basis for creating products of their own

• End-users—people who finally use the end result of the above activities

• Internal folks—people in your organization

The importance of solid documentation

From a partner’s point of view, solid documentation:

• Conveys intent as well as structure• Shows a clear product development path• Augments their own internal resources

(engineering, QA, FAE, marketing, sales) • Makes their jobs easier:

– faster time to market – lower costs– higher satisfaction with provider

• Provides a format for change requests

The importance of solid documentation

From the developer’s perspective, solid documentation:

• Cements relationship with the provider– Establishes professionalism– Reduces fear, uncertainty, and doubt

• Augments their own internal resources (engineering, QA, FAE, marketing, sales)

• Makes their jobs easier:– faster time to market – lower costs– higher satisfaction with provider

• Reduces support costs

The importance of solid documentation

From the end user’s point of view, solid documentation:

• Educates and involves the reader• Shows the product’s features in clear detail

—if this can’t be easily done, the product itself is too complex

• Provides a detailed, organized reference so that all details of the product can be instantly found

• Provides troubleshooting, the first line of support

The importance of solid documentation

From the product’s point of view, solid documentation:• Adds value to the product• Provides a glimmer of hope that education may

prevail before trial-and-error sets in• Is the essential element to convert a bench project

into a customer product–a process called productization

• Doesn’t allow cleverness go unnoticed – Describe and explain the product in ever finer detail,

otherwise…– Useful features can go unnoticed in favor of the default

behavior

The importance of solid documentation

From the internal folks’ point of view, good documentation:

• Provides a resource for the entire customer relationship:– Marketing– Pre-sales– Professional services– Support– Retention

• Provides a basis for internal training• Provides a valuable record

The importance of solid documentation

From an open-source point of view:• Collaboration and cooperation are key to

success• Collaboration is made possible by

communication

From a consumer electronics point of view:• A product can not be considered

“marketable” without documentation describing it completely and correctly

The four critical elements of documentation

Four Critical Elements

In order by increasing level of detail:• Concepts• Tasks & Examples• Reference• Troubleshooting

Concepts

The Big Picture: 35,000 foot high-resolution view

• Describe the feature, construct, API, entire platform, etc. with the reader in mind

• Keep cross-references to a minimum• “Tell” rather than “show”• Keep tone professional, not

conversational

Tasks

Step by step examples: 5,000 foot view• Take common (and uncommon) tasks

one at a time in a logical order, with running examples

• “Show” rather than “tell”• Feed on previous tasks and examples,

but try to make each one self-contained• Consistency is key• Keep cross-references to a minimum

Reference

Organized menu showing everything that’s available: street view

• Describe in as much detail as is appropriate

• Leave no stone unturned• Refer back to previous sections for

conceptual descriptions and examples• Keep cross-references to a maximum

Troubleshooting

Answering questions: through the looking glass and looking back—the reader’s view

• Probably the most important and most-read section, and least often included

• Content is King, but understanding the reader is the Prime Minister

• Display a sympathy for the reader and a willingness to show and teach—to be an advocate for the reader

The Four-Element Theme

Four-element theme is recursive:

Good example: MontaVista’s DevRocket doc set

Concepts

Tasks & Examples

Reference

Trouble-shooting

Doc set in general

Overview & Specs

Prog. GuidesTutorials

API GuidesGlob. IndexSearch func.

FAQsKBs

Each document

Prefatory chapters

“How-To” chapters

AppendicesIndex

Optional trouble-shooting sec.

Each chapter

Overview Task and example sections

Cross-refs to reference documents

Cross-refs to related information

Each individual element

Introduce topic, task, example

Step by step instructions

Cross-refs to reference documents

Cross-refs to related information

Meeting expectations of readers

Meeting Reader’s Expectations

Who are the readers• Partners—product manufacturers or others

who turn your project into a product to resell

• Developers—organizations or people who use your project as basis for creating products of their own

• End-users—people who finally use the end result of the above activities

• Internal—people in your organization

Meeting Reader’s Expectations

What are their expectations? Interview? Survey? Educated guess?

• Educate yourself with research—become the reader

• Find out what they need to know conceptually• Find out what tasks they need to accomplish

and make sure they are adequately described in your document

• Find out where they can look for more information

Who are you, anyway?

• For this presentation:– Technical writers and editors– Project managers – Engineers stuck with writing tasks

• Whom have I missed?

And what do you want?

• Goals of this presentation– The importance of solid documentation– The four critical elements of documentation– Meeting expectations of readers– The importance of effective project

management– Emerging fashions

• What do you want to know that we haven’t covered here?

The importance of effective project management

Effective Project Management

• Documentation as a product is fundamentally different from software– Didactic rather than declarative

• Documentation project management is fundamentally similar to software project management– Development, production, testing,

deployment

• Documentation is fundamentally cross-functional

Effective Project Management

• Establish resources– Define and staff roles rather than jobs– Identify tools, SMEs, access to information

• Plan: begin with the end in mind– Get everyone’s input: marketing, sales,

support, engineering, professional services, potential end users

• Aim for synergy with partners, developers, end users

• Follow up, but don’t hover

Questions for managers to ask

Nature of the project:• Is this an open-source project, or a

proprietary project built on open-source components and/or tools

• Hardware, software, or device containing both?

• Where and for whom does this project add value?

Questions for managers to ask

Let the money be your guide, let the customer be your rudder:

• Who is the customer base? Partners, developers, end-users?

• In which market niche? How does the market set expectations?

• Who is the expected audience? Are they different from the customer base?

Questions for managers to ask

Project management issues:• Home grow the docs with available

resources, or seek professional writers?

• If home grown, how to minimize costs and development downtime while maximizing quality?

• If professional, contract or hire?

Emerging Fashions

Emerging Fashions

• What kind of fashions? Why not “trends”?– “Trends” indicates business purpose

• But you just told me to ignore fashions, didn’t you?

• Many come from open source community• How to use fashions effectively in open-source:

– Emphasize developer participation & cooperation rather than secrecy and direct competition

– Follow fashions that increase value, ignore others– Remember that content is King

Emerging Fashions

• Political Direction• Content Delivery Mechanisms• Source Management• Stylistic Trends• Tools

Political Direction—Toward Openness

How does the open-source philosophy affect documentation, and CE products in general?

• Openness• Collaboration• Cooperation

Very confusing for historically proprietary markets such as consumer electronics & telecommunications

Content Delivery Mechanisms

• Open SDKs and developer portals – Blogs and RSS feeds– Developer forums– FAQ and Knowledge Base

• Wikis and public bug tracking systems– Public participation– Direct feedback to developers and end-users

• White papers, articles, technical specifications

Source Management

• Searchable HTML (printable PDF is so early 2k)

• Structured, open format—XML in its many forms

• Source-generated docs (doxygen, javadoc)

• Content management systems• Bug tracking

Stylistic Trends

• Minimalism—counteracting the “dummies” trends and showing respect for the reader

• Conversational tone vs professional tone, both in vogue in different contexts

• Writing for non-native English speakers, writing for translation and localization

• Pictures—images, line drawings, screenshots, etc. can convey meaning beyond translation

What about tools?

Tools don’t matter, content is King• Easy to bog down believing one tool is

superior• Any document can be written with any

decent set of writing tools. Pick a good one and get going

• Avoid “tool fashion” at all costs• Saving money on tools is no more effective

in software development than it is in house construction

What about tools?

Tools matter a little bit, because timing is Queen• A known tool beats a new one when time is

short• Writing tools should be a very small

percentage of the project’s budget, but time and labor can be a very large percentage with the wrong tools

• Using proprietary tools in an open-source project can sometimes lead to problems down the road

• If a tool makes the job harder, uglier, longer, or less future-proof, replace it

Solid Documentation Matrix

Concepts

Tasks & Examples

Reference

Trouble-shooting

Partners

Specifications

Low-level guides Good samples

Private API documentsSource code

Shared wikis, white papers

Developers

Conceptual overviews

Programming guides, good samples

Public API documents on a public portal

Blogs, forums, white papers

End-Users

White papersTraining

Step-by-step instructions with pictures

Good indicesSearchable docs

FAQs, Knowledge Bases

Internal Folks

Internal wikisInternal training

Internal examples

Public & private API docsSource code

Internal KBs, searchable docs

Review: Goals of this Presentation

• The importance of solid documentation• The four critical elements of

documentation• Meeting expectations of readers• The importance of effective project

management• Emerging fashions

How did we do?

Jeffrey Osier-Mixon707 326 3758

jefro@jefro.net

http://www.jefro.net