ptc-catalog

Developer Documentation

Download this PTC (Markdown)

## Target

Create documentation for use by the developers of a software project

## User Story

As an application developer, I want to write developer documentation, so that new developers will find it easier to ramp up and contribute to the code development.

## Card

Stage Description
0 No project documentation exists.
1 An initial set of documentation has been created1,2.
2 Feedback from developers is collected on a regular basis and is used to improve documentation3.
3 Scripts and/or auto-documentation tools are used to ensure the documentation is kept up to date.
4 Documentation maintenance is incorporated into the project’s continuous integration process.

## Comments

  1. A good method for staring is to investigate what documentation is provided by other contemporary similar projects. Inspired by research results, create a scope of your eventual ideal developer documentation.
  2. Focus on creation of initial set of documentation that is most likely to be used by team members for developer phase (ex: existing bug list, to-do list, brief design document, code-organization description, coding standard documentation, code repository description and rules, testing documentation etc.)
  3. Develop a process to solicit feedback on the developer documentation and incorporate improvements. A fresh-eyes new team member perspective is desirable to understand what critical things are missing
  4. Some documentation tools which may be useful:

Acknowledgement

This Project Tracking Card originated from the PSIP PTC Catalog. The development of the PSIP PTC Catalog was supported by the Exascale Computing Project (17-SC-20-SC), a collaborative effort of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration.