9 types of technical documentation & their purpose, focus, to the best of your product's success!

1. TECHNICAL
DOCUMENTATION MENU
BY TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
WWW.TECHNICALCOM.CO.IL

2. “MENU”
When you enter a restaurant you are guided to the table
reserved for you. The waiter will place before you the menu
from which you can select the dishes you like.
We adopted the same approach to present the Technical
Documentation Menu from which you can select the items
mostly applicable to your requirements.
The better the customers understand the details of the
purchased product or service the more they can identify new
opportunities to buy additional products and therefore
increase sales.

3. DOCUMENTATION OPTIONS
When considering the various documentation options listed below you must also
consider the risks and consequences if you do not keep and maintain records
about the procedures and knowhow of you organization.
Product Tree
User Guide
Installation and
Maintenance manual
Technical Manual
Quick Guide
Online Help
Software
Documentation
Product Training Kit
Jump Start

4. Product Tree
Purpose and Use
It shows how the product is put
together. It contains the BOM with
information how to identify each
item and presenting hierarchical
structure of the product.
Output
BOM linked to inventory records
with usable manufacturing
instructions and schedules.
Consequences
If you do not set up and maintain a
product tree manufacturing
instructions must be regenerated
each time and control of parts or
materials is ineffective. You cannot
shift resources, parts or materials
between products and handle
records to minimize the inventory.
User Guide
Installation and
Maintenance manual
Purpose and Use
Also called Operator’s Manual, it is
written for skilled and computer
literate operators which allows them
to use the manual at work site.
Purpose and Use
These are special purpose
manuals to help trained users to
install, configure and maintain a
devise or system at a work site.
This type of manuals also
contains troubleshooting
measures and login procedure for
vendors’ technicians for remote
monitoring.
Output
Printed user guide or electronic
books like PDF files or both which
can be used at the work site.
Consequences
If the user is not provided with a
usable guide he will be frustrated
and discouraged to use the devise
or system. The help desk will be
overloaded by calls that could be
otherwise avoided to restore the
confidence in your company.
Output
Printed user guide or electronic
books like PDF files or both which
can be used at the work site.
Consequences
A user without a usable manual
will be frustrated and unable to
install the device or system. The
help desk will be overloaded by
calls that could be otherwise
avoided to restore the confidence
in your company.

5. Technical Manual
Purpose and Use
These are special purpose manuals
to help technicians to install,
configure and maintain a devise or
system at a work site.
Output
Printed user guide or electronic
books like PDF files or both which
can be used at the work site.
Consequences
If the technician is not provided with
a usable manual he will be unable to
install and maintain the device or
system. He will call the R&D teem
frequently. The downtime of the
device will be extended which will
frustrate the buyer and his
organization.
Quick Guide
Purpose and Use
Quick Guides are in general two
pages long and designed to help
users with a very particular task.
These provide the minimum
essential information required to
start working on the application or
device.
Output
A brochure which can be carried by
the user or technician to locate
information at a glance.
Consequences
If the user or technician is not
provided with a usable quick guide
which he/she can carry to locate
information at a glance he will be
frustrated and have to look some
ware else to get information.
The help desk will be overloaded by
calls that could be otherwise
avoided to restore the confidence in
your company.
Online Help
Online help is to provide user instant
access to the specific query, focuses
precisely on a specific problem, and to
obtains the solution instantly, while
simultaneously keeping the program
running. It’s the current trend.
Purpose and Use
Enhance online user assistance
format.
Output
Enhanced user access by Web
technologies which login into contextsensitive help systems.
Consequences
Competitors offering such help will
have marketing edge and their
application will be used more and
resulting in more sales.
An application user will not like to exit
application to look for help at other
sources, like the user guide. The help
desk will be overloaded by calls that
could be otherwise avoided to restore
the confidence in your company.

6. Software Documentation
Purpose and Use
Programming logistics cannot be
complete without documentation.
Output
Software document with comments
and explanatory notes.
Consequences
A poor program with good
documentation can be fixed and
updated later. A good program with
poor documentation cannot be
used.
Product Training Kit
Purpose and Use
Transfer skills to the workplace.
Output
Each training kit generally contains:
Presentation
Text file for the trainee which details
the information given during the
presentation.
Instructor’s file listing didactical
guidelines for the instructor.
It is strongly suggested to perform
some practical tasks and hands-on
within the frame of the training.
Consequences
Customers or workers not properly
trained will be behind in production
and their performance will be lesser
their trained colleagues.
Jump Start
There is dispute when to start
the documentation project. Some
preface to start after the product
freezes and ready for delivery. At
that point little time left for
documentation and verification
which may effect the quality of
the documents.
A better method is to start
documentation at a point when
the product is near to final. This
approach ascertains that
deadlines can be met without
compromising on the quality of
the documents.