Types of Software Documentation

Overview

Questions

• “What are the different types of software documentation?”
• “How do the types differ?”

Objectives

• “Become familiar with the two main categories of software documentation and how they differ.”

The Types of Software Documentation

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In our discussion of documentation, we will focus on two overarching categories: Developer and User.

But wait… aren’t there more?

You may be sitting there and asking this question. Many different sources will list various alternative types of documentation such as requirements documentation and testing documentation.

These specific sub-types of documentation can be categorized into the two types listed here. We provide some examples below:

Category	Examples
Developer	Requirements documentation; testing documentation; API documentation
User	How-to guides; tutorials; troubleshooting guidelines

Can you think of more?

What other types of documentation can you think of? Do they fit into the categories above?

Characteristics of Each Type

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Category	Intent	Target Audience
Developer	To inform developers how to interface with a given software package throughout the entire software development lifecycle, including team processes.	Developers, stakeholders, team members, technical members of project
User	To inform users how to be more successful in the usage of a software package from installation to usage, including examples, troubleshooting, etc.	End-users, stakeholders

Key Points

• “There are two primary categories for documentation: developer and user.”
• “Developer documentation is intended to describe how developers should interface with a given software package.”
• “User documentation is intended to help users be more successful in the usage of a software package.”