ICAS4106B Action and complete change requests

Learning Outcome

1. After complete this unit, student must be able to review change request

• collect and review fault details from various sources
• obtain technical data from various sources
• clarify nature of change with client

2. After complete this unit, student must be able to modify the system to accept changes

• review changes against business requirements
• design, code and document changes according to standards, if hardware change then it is installed according to manufacturer's specification
• revise technical documentation to reflect change
• test and finalise system changes

3. After complete this unit, student must be able to meet training requirements

• users are shown how to use the changed system
• change management training is supplied
  

4. After complete this unit, student must be able to complete an evaluation of the change status

• determine system effectiveness to identify need for replacement rather than maintenance
• make recommendations of system effectiveness
  

5. After complete this unit, student must be able to implement changes

• develop a backup plan to ensure business continuity during implementation
• update training materials and training requirements
• review technical requirements to facilitate acceptance of changes into production
• introduce changes into production in accordance with business requirements
• complete and update change requests and other documentation

Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organisatins from a current state to a desired future state. Change management (or change control) is the process during which the changes of a system are implemented in a controlled manner by following a pre-defined framework/model with, to some extent, reasonable modifications

Change Management in IT is an IT Service Management discipline. The objective of Change Management in this context is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to controlled IT infrastructure, in order to minimize the number and impact of any related incidents upon service. Changes in the IT infrastructure may arise reactively in response to problems or externally imposed requirements, e.g. legislative changes, or proactively from seeking improved efficiency and effectiveness or to enable or reflect business initiatives, or from programs, projects or service improvement initiatives. Change Management can ensure standardized methods, processes and procedures are used for all changes, facilitate efficient and prompt handling of all changes, and maintain the proper balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of changes.

Review change requests

1. Receive and document requests for hardware and software changes, utilising a change management system and according to organisational help desk procedures

2. Gather and organise system data relevant to the change requests, using available diagnostic tools

3. Review the proposed changes against current and future business requirements and examine the system data, with work team, in order to select appropriate changes to be carried out

4. Discuss and clarify the selected changes with client

Modify system according to requested changes

1. Develop a plan, with prioritised tasks and contingency arrangements, for modification of the system

2. Undertake the selected system changes according to organisational guidelines and procedures and in accordance with manufacturer recommendations

3. Test the system changes for performance and identify problems

4. Resolve identified problems

5. Revise relevant client and technical documentation to reflect system changes according to organisational standards

6. Notify client of status of change and update change management system, as per organisational help desk procedures

ProjectTrack 2007 - Personal Edition Overview

The Personal Edition of ProjectTrack is targeted to anyone that needs to manage projects in a single user environment.

ProjectTrack compliments applications such as MS Project, but does not replace them. Rather than a planning tool, ProjectTrack is a program to help you execute your plan; saving you time with all the administrative work that surrounds projects.

For example, if you use a spreadsheet or word processor to keep track of action items (to-dos), issues, milestones, etc. You can use ProjectTrack to keep track of all those items from a single location. You can have multiple companies and projects, each one of them with its own set of information. But keeping track of things is not all you can do with ProjectTrack. Most projects generate documents that need to be easily accessible. They can be linked directly to the project, saving time and stress searching. What about looking for a document related to a project that was finished some time ago? With ProjectTrack, the document can remain linked for easy access.

ProjectTrack also has a Document Management System; simple, but powerful.
With ProjectTrack you can catalog all of your documents. Once a document is attached to ProjectTrack, you can search for it using a multitude of parameters, and the results display immediately. You still need to save the documents someplace in your computer or network, but once ProjectTrack is linked to them, you will not ever need to remember where you put them.

Activity 3

Your Helpdesk has received a variety of calls on the OKI C110 printers.

Many of these calls require a hardware service from an OKI technician. Although at present these printers are still under warranty, the delays in getting a technician are causing inconvenience and aggravation amongst your users.

Other OKI C110 printers do not seem to cause problems - -one is working quite well for the Director of the Information Technology Department. Yet the one in the Human Resources section has had five calls requiring technical assistance in the past seven weeks.

The organisation has 45 of these printers, which were bought as a cheaper alternative to the Hewlett Packard photosmart C6380, which had been the organisation standard until this year.

Q: Investigate both printers, including their price, consumables, warranty conditions and throughput. Produce a recommendation for your manager Lothar Voigt about the OKI printers.

A: Referring to table bellowing, the HP C6380 is will be better than Oki c110 because of by the same amount of consumables and warranty but HP C6380 is a bit cheaper.

Activity 4

Activity 4.1 By reserching on the web, find the mission statements of

4.1a: A profit making organisation

A: A mission statement is a brief description of a company's fundamental purpose. A mission statement answers the question, "Why do we exist?"

The mission statement articulates the company's purpose both for those in the organization and for the public.

For instance, the mission statement of Canadian Tire reads (in part): “Canadian Tire is a growing network of interrelated businesses... Canadian Tire continuously strives to meet the needs of its customers for total value by offering a unique package of location, price, service and assortment.”

The mission statement of Rivercorp, business development consultants in Campbell River, B.C., is: “To provide one stop progressive economic development services through partnerships on behalf of shareholders and the community.”

As you see from these two mission statement samples, mission statements are as varied as the companies they describe. However, all mission statements will "broadly describe an organization's present capabilities, customer focus, activities, and business makeup" (Glossary, Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases by Fred David).

4.1b: A non-profit making organisation

A: A Non-profit making organisations are also known as 'not for profit' organisations and this is the name we give them simply because they want to do something or provide something rather than make more and more money.

What kind of organisations are we talking about that just want to do something rather than making money? Well, is there a Youth club near you? Or a Garden Society? Or a Working Men's Club? They are probably examples of non-profit making organisations. Here's a bigger list!

• Associations
• Clubs
• Societies
• Unions
• Charities
• Universities
• Churches

Activity 4.2 Produce a set of instructions for installing the following

4.2a: Hewllet Packard Laserjet 5100

• Go to Start > Printers and Faxes. Then you will see the list of printers which are installed on your PC.
• Double-click on the icon 'Add Printer'.
• Click on 'Next'
• The option "A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer" is automatically checked.
• Click on 'Next' and you will see following three possibilities to add a printer: 1) find a printer in the directory, 2) connect to this printer, 3) Connect to printer on the internet or...(greved out)
  
• Choose the first option
• If you know the name or location of the printer, fill it in and press 'Find Now'. (This limits the number of matches).
  If you do not know the name and/or location, leave all fields blank and press 'Find Now'.
• Select the correct printer and press 'OK'.
• Choose whether you want to install the printer as default printer or not and press 'Next'.

4.2b Windows XP

A: This procedure demonstrates how to install Windows XP Professional. The procedure to install Windows XP home edition is very similar to the professional edition. Since Windows XP Pro is more advanced operating system, it will be used to demonstrate the installation procedure.

All versions of Windows XP CD are bootable. In order to boot from CD/DVD-ROM you need to set the boot sequence. Look for the boot sequence under your BIOS setup and make sure that the first boot device is set to CD/DVD-ROM. You can then perform the following steps to install Windows XP:

Step 1 - Start your PC and place your Windows XP CD in your CD/DVD-ROM drive. Your PC should automatically detect the CD and you will get a message saying "Press any key to boot from CD".

Step 2 - At this stage it will ask you to press F6 if you want to install a third party Raid or SCSI driver. If you are using a an IDE Hard Drive then you do not need to press F6. If you are using a SCSI or SATA Hard drive then you must press F6 otherwise Windows will not detect your Hard Drive during the installation. Please make sure you have the Raid drivers on a floppy disk. Normally the drivers are supplied on a CD which you can copy to a floppy disk ready to be installed. If you are not sure how to do this then please read your motherboard manuals for more information.

Step 3 - Press S to Specify that you want to install additional device.

Step 4 - You will be asked to insert the floppy disk with the Raid or SCSI drivers. Press enter after you have inserted the disk.

Step 5 - You will see a list of Raid drivers for your HDD. Select the correct driver for your device and press enter.

Step 6 - You will then get a Windows XP Professional Setup screen. You have the option to do a new Windows install, Repair previous install or quit. Since we are doing a new install we just press Enter to continue.

Step 7 - You will be presented with the End User Licensing Agreement. Press F8 to accept and continue

Step 8 - This step is very important. Here we will create the partition where Windows will be installed. In our case the drive size is 8190MB. We can choose to install Windows in this drive without creating a partition, hence use the entire size of the drive. If you wish to do this you can just press enter and Windows will automatically partition and format the drive as one large drive.

However for this demonstration I will create two partition. The first partition will be 6000MB (C: drive) and second partition would be 2180MB (E: drive). By creating two partition we can have one which stores Windows and Applications and the other which stores our data. So in the future if anything goes wrong with our Windows install such as virus or spyware we can re-install Windows on C: drive and our data on E: drive will not be touched. Please note you can choose whatever size partition your like. For example if you have 500GB hard drive you can have two partition of 250GB each.

Press C to create a partition.

Step 8 - Windows will show the total size of the hard drive and ask you how much you want to allocate for the partition you are about to create. I will choose 6000MB. You will then get the screen below. Notice it shows C: Partition 1 followed by the size 6000 MB. This indicates the partition has been created. We still have an unpartitioned space of 2189MB. Next highlight the unpartitioned space by pressing down the arrow key. Then press C to create another partition. You will see the total space available for the new partition. Just choose all the space left over, in our case 2180MB.

Step 9 - Now you will see both partition listed. Partition 1 (C: Drive) 6000MB and Partition 2 (E: Drive) 2180MB. You will also have 8MB of unpartitioned space. Don't worry about that. Just leave it how its is. Windows normally has some unpartitioned space. You might wonder what happened to D: drive. Windows has automatically allocated D: drive to CD/DVD-ROM.

Select Partition 1 (C: Drive) and press Enter.

Step 10 - Choose format the partition using NTFS file system.This is the recommended file system. If the hard drive has been formatted before then you can choose quick NTFS format. We chose NTFS because it offers many security features, supports larger drive size, and bigger size files.

Windows will now start formatting drive C: and start copying setup files

Step 11 - After the setup has completed copying the files the computer will restart. Leave the XP CD in the drive but this time DO NOT press any key when the message "Press any key to boot from CD" is displayed. In few seconds setup will continue. Windows XP Setup wizard will guide you through the setup process of gathering information about your computer.

Step 12 - Choose your region and language.

Step 13 - Type in your name and organization.

Step 14. Enter your product key.

Step 15 - Name the computer, and enter an Administrator password. Don't forget to write down your Administrator password.

Step 16 - Enter the correct date, time and choose your time zone.

Step 17 - For the network setting choose typical and press next.

Step 18 - Choose workgroup or domain name. If you are not a member of a domain then leave the default settings and press next. Windows will restart again and adjust the display.

Step 19 - Finally Windows will start and present you with a Welcome screen. Click next to continue.

Step 20 - Choose 'help protect my PC by turning on automatic updates now' and press next.

Step 21 - Will this computer connect to the internet directly, or through a network? If you are connected to a router or LAN then choose: 'Yes, this computer will connect through a local area network or home network'. If you have dial up modem choose: 'No, this computer will connect directly to the internet'. Then click Next.

Step 22 - Ready to activate Windows? Choose yes if you wish to active Windows over the internet now. Choose no if you want to activate Windows at a later stage.

Step 23 - Add users that will sign on to this computer and click next.

Step 24 - You will get a Thank you screen to confirm setup is complete. Click finish.

Step 25. Log in, to your PC for the first time.

Step 26 - You now need to check the device manager to confirm that all the drivers has been loaded or if there are any conflicts. From the start menu select Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. Click on the System icon and then from the System Properties window select the Hardware tab, then click on Device Manager.

If there are any yellow exclamation mark "!" next to any of the listed device, it means that no drivers or incorrect drivers has been loaded for that device. In our case we have a Video Controller (VGA card) which has no drivers installed.

Your hardware should come with manufacturer supplied drivers. You need to install these drivers using the automatic setup program provided by the manufacturer or you need to manually install these drivers. If you do not have the drivers, check the manufacturers website to download them.

To install a driver manually use the following procedure:

(a) From the device manager double click on the device containing the exclamation mark.

(b) This would open a device properties window.

(c) Click on the Driver tab.

(d) Click Update Driver button. The Wizard for updating device driver pops up

You now get two options. The first option provides an automatic search for the required driver. The second option allows you to specify the location of the driver. If you don't know the location of the driver choose the automatic search which would find the required driver from the manufacturer supplied CD or Floppy disk. Windows would install the required driver and may ask you to restart the system for the changes to take affect. Use this procedure to install drivers for all the devices that contain an exclamation mark. Windows is completely setup when there are no more exclamation marks in the device manager.

Activity 5 Answer the following questions about the process described in the Guide.

Q 5.1: How does this process ensure quality in the change?

A: The CCRB, the Requester, and the Implementer perform the PIR. The PIR assesses the following facets of the change process:

• The effectiveness of the change made against the original objective
• Any planning of outstanding or further actions
• Determination of whether all documentation and change requests have been updated
• Any breakdowns in the process

PIR comments are recorded in the change request, including whether the change was successful or unsuccessful.

All requests (including cancellations) will be retained in a central repository for audit and knowledge base purposes.

Q5.2: Verify the success of the change?

A: Because of the dynamic of the change environment, it is necessary to constantly monitor the effectiveness of and compliance with the change process. Through the use of reports generated change management and reports generated through audits, periodic refinements can be made to the change process to improve its effectiveness.

Q5.3: Measure the results of the change

A: Reports regarding performance to pre-defined change metric standards such as those mentioned previously as Key Performance Measures, is key to understanding how well change is performed under varying circumstances. This information is the source for determining if change management is performed satisfactorily or requires a process review. Specific metrics and standards are defined during rollout of the change process.

Activity 6

Your organisation is planning to remove a variety of colour inkjet printers which are attached to individual PCS, and replace them with two printers:

1. a networked monochrome laser printer (a Hewlett Packard HP4100N)

AND

2. a networked colour laser printer (a Hewlett Packard 4550N)

The reasons for doing this have been

• costs (it costs more to buy cartridges for all the inkjet printers than 10 toner cartridges for the monochrome laser printer and a full set of 4 colour laser cartridges for the colour laser printer)
• quality (the output of the lasers is of a higher quality than that of the inkjets)
• speed (the lasers are quicker than the inkjets)
• reliability (the lasers have fewer moving parts and are more robust)

Many of your users are unhappy with losing their own personal colour printer.

Q: What are the main issues that you will need to cover in training your users for the new printer configurations?

A: During the training, you will let the user know about the better quality, the faster speed and the reliability of laser printer are much more better than inkjet printers. Then, you might explain to all users about the cost of inkjet cartridges for each printer are more expensive than buy toner cartridges for network laser printer. This is because, some of individual printer are rarely to use colour inkjet but users still need colour ink for their printer just in case. Thus, network laser printers is absolutely right for your organisation.

Key terms

Hardware: May include but is not limited to workstations, personal computers, modems or other connectivity devices, networks, DSL modems, remote sites, servers.

Software: May include but is not limited to commercial, in-house, packaged or customised software.

System: May include but is not limited to the hardware and software components that run a computer.

Requirements: May be in reference to the business, system, application, network or people in the organisation.

Client: May include but is not limited to internal departments, external organisations, individual people and employees.

Organisational guidelines: May include but are not limited to personal use of emails and internet access, content of emails, downloading information and accessing particular websites, opening mail with attachments, virus risk, dispute resolution, document procedures and templates, communication methods and financial control mechanisms.

Technical documentation: May include project specifications, reports, help references, technical manuals, training materials and self-paced tutorials, on-line help, user guides, brochures.

Standards: May include ISO/IEC/AS standards, organisational standards, project standards (for further information refer to the Standards Australia website at: www.standards.com.au).

Documentation: May follow ISO/IEC/AS standards, audit trails, naming standards, version control, project management templates and report writing, maintaining equipment inventory; client training and satisfaction reports.

Help desk procedures: May include:· customer contact centre or general contact point that then consults with a supplier or other technician· customer contact centre staffed by technicians capable of solving problems· real-time on-line support· web-based support.

ICAS4022B Determine and action client computing problems

This unit will present a series of troubleshooting and fault finding methods to help you enhance your chance of success when trying to fix computer problems. Technicians in the workplace are expected to rectify faults quickly, or provide a workaround or solution. You will learn to create a list of possible causes for faults, organise in order of likelihood of each cause and formulate a solution or rectification.

Outcomes for this unit are:

• Create a list of probable causes
• Organise in order of likelihood of each cause
• Formulate a solution or rectification

Activity 1: Web Search – Boot Faults

In this activity you will need to identify the purpose of the boot.ini file in Windows based systems. Note that Windows 95/98/Me do not have a boot.ini file.

Direct your web browser to Microsoft’s web site – http://www.microsoft.com/, and do a search to find out the purpose of the boot.ini file in a Windows based system.

Q: What is the purpose of the/MAXMEM switch when used within the boot.ini file?

A: The boot.ini file has the purpose of indicating to the bootloader program where to boot the system from. The boot.ini will have entries pointing to a partition or partitions that might be used to boot the operating system from. If the system has more that one operating system loaded (i.e. dual boot system), the boot.ini file will reflect this and will be responsible for providing a menu at boot; the user may then choose a given operating system. The following is a sample boot.ini file taken from a Windows XP system:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS=‘Microsoft Windows XP Professional’/fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn

The purpose of the/MAXMEM switch when used in a boot.ini file is to limit the amount of RAM that is made available to the operating system. This is helpful when troubleshooting faults associated with RAM. See the example below taken from a Windows 2000 Pro system.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\winnt=‘Windows 2000 Professional’/fastdetect/MAXMEM=32

Activity 2: Web Search – Boot Stop Error

This activity will require troubleshooting an error occurring at a Windows system during the boot up sequence.

The following error has been reported as occurring on a Windows 2000 server:

‘STOP 0x0000002E’ or ‘DATA_BUS_ERROR’ Error Message

The error started occurring on system that was working fine until then.

Q: Search the Internet. Can you find a possible cause for this fault and potential solutions?

A: According to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base (support.microsoft.com) Article—Article ID: 218132, the problem could be caused by:

• A failed or defective hardware component, including RAM, L2 RAM cache, or video RAM
  Hardware that is misconfigured or mismatched. For example, if memory has been added recently, there may be mismatched RAM speeds.
• Incompatible hardware. For example, the speed of RAM recently added may be incompatible with another hardware component on the system, such as the L2 cache.
• An ill-behaved device driver attempting to access an address in the 0x8xxxxxxx range that does not exist (that is, does not correspond to a real physical address mapping).
• A virus has infected the Master Boot Record (MBR).
• Hard disk damage.
• The error may be resolved by disabling the following items in the computer’s CMOS settings. For instructions on disabling these features, consult your hardware documentation or contact the computer’s manufacturer:
• All caching, including the L2 cache, the BIOS cache, the internal/external caches, and the write-back cache on disk controllers
• All shadowing
• Any BIOS-enabled virus-protection feature
• If none of these actions resolve the problem, have the system motherboard examined by a professional repair and diagnostic testing facility. A crack, a scratched trace, or a defective component on the motherboard may also cause this error message.

Activity 3: Backing Up System Configuration

Backing up a system configuration is critical to safeguarding the integrity of system files, and recovering from misconfiguration and corruption.

Windows systems allow you to back up the ‘system state’.

The Windows system state data comprises:

• The Registry
• COM+ Class Registration database
• Boot files, including the system files
• Certificate Services database
• System files that are under Windows File Protection

Note: it does not matter if you don’t have access to a Windows XP system, as long as you have access to the Internet to search for solutions which will allow you to write the procedure.

Q: How would you write the procedure that would allow a backup operator to backup the system state data using a Windows XP system?

A: The following procedure would be adequate for backing the Windows System State data:

• Open Backup.
• The Backup Utility Wizard starts by default, unless it is disabled.
• Click the Advanced Mode button in the Backup Utility Wizard.
• Click the Backup tab, then in Click to select the check box for any drive, folder, or file that you want to back up, select the System State check box. This will back up the System State data along with any other data you have selected for the current backup operation.

Activity 4: Hierarchical Task Analysis

As you would have learnt earlier in this learning pack, a useful method for fault finding is HTA – Hierarchical Task Analysis. Hierarchical Task Analysis allows the technician to break down a major task or process into a series of logical steps that need to occur.

This activity requires you to develop an HTA diagram that represents the process of a user logging on to a network.

Q: Develop a diagram that shows the logical steps taht need to occur for someone successfully logging on to a network?

A: An HTA diagram that fulfils the requirements of this activity would show the following logical steps:

• Computer is turned on and connected to the Network


• User Interface is available to user


• Login Box prompt appears after user presses CTRL + ALT + DEL simultaneously


• User enters required credentials (username, password, domain/preferred server)


• Network server validates user login (credentials are accepted)


• User logged in

An actual graphical representation of this (actual HTA diagram) is shown below.

Activity 5: Cause and Effect Analysis

This is activity will require you to practise developing a Cause and Effect [fishbone] diagram.
Take the sample from the previous activity—A user that attempts to login.

Q: Assume that the user was not able to login successfully and develop a fishbone diagram that analyses the possible causes for this user not being able to login.

A: One of a possible solution for the fishbone diagram is presented below:

Key terms

Boot-up time faults: Boot-up time faults are those faults that occur during the boot-up sequence.

Cause-and-Effect Diagram: A graphic tool that helps identify, sort, and display possible causes of a problem or quality characteristic. These diagrams sometimes are knows as fishbone diagrams due to their shape.

Cause and Effect Analysis (CEA): Cause and effect is a method which allows a technician to analyse the possible causes of faults (the undesired negative effects). The Cause and Effect method is usually implemented by using Cause and Effect diagrams.

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA): Fault tree analysis is the process of analysing a fault by using a decision tree. Decision trees can be constructed in advance, for common troubleshooting tasks or they can be constructed ad-hoc for new faults.

Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA): HTA is a logical representation of a process and steps that must occur for this process to begin and finish successfully.

Master Boot Record (MBR): The sector at the beginning of a hard disk that contains bootstrap information, to begin loading an operating system.

POST: POST or Power-On-Self-Test is an initial test that a computer system executes automatically when turned on to check system integrity.

Virtual Memory: Virtual memory is the area of a hard disk drive used to fake memory (RAM). When a system runs out of physical RAM, it relies on available hard disk space to provide working storage.

ICAD4217B Create technical documentation

There are many reasons for maintaining a complete and up-to-date library of systems and procedures for documentation. Without documentation that has meaning to the users, time may be wasted dealing with technical problems by duplicating answers to problems that have already been solved.

Other reasons for creating accurate, complete technical documentation include to:

• pass an audit, or quality certification
• create an accurate record of an organisation’s systems
• record maintenance
• identify the need to upgrade systems
• provide records for future decisions
• provide workers and stakeholders with a database for their jobs
• ensure work and service quality is consistent when staff changes occur
• add value to the organisation’s business and service.

Technical documentation provides a record of the functionality and processing of a system, program, network or application. The technical documentation should document how the system, program, network or application is structured, how it works and changes that have been made to it.

Task 1: Determine documentation standards

Activity 1: The uses of technical documentation

Q: Make a list of ten objects that you can see or feel from where you sit, that have technical documentation associated with them.

A: Answers for this question will vary, there are some example following:

1. When you switched on your computer, a technical document (a log in the computer’s memory) was created.
2. The software you are using was installed using technical documentation.
3. When you switch on your lights, a record is kept for billing purposes.
4. The chair you sit on was made from a plan.
5. The mobile phone on your desk has a help function.
6. When the chair was made, a quality check was recorded.
7. The air you breathe is monitored for pollution records.
8. The time on the clock is set to an agreed, international standard.
9. The clothes you wear were made to a pattern.
10. Your health is recorded in doctor’s files.

Activity 2: Identify documentation standards

Q: Identify at least two industry standards that relate to documentation. Use search terms such as: standards, documentation, technical, industry in your preferred search engine.

A: International Standards Organisation ISO 9000 Quality Standards (which is a family of different standards) that requires the processes involved in technical documentation to meet a certain level of quality, theses standards concern quality management systems. The Australian Standard AS ISO 10013-2003 relates to the documentation for the quality management system. ISO 14000 standards relate to environmental aspects of processes and can relate to such things as disposal and storage of documents and the media chosen for publishing documents. The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families of standards are those from which many organisation-based standards are derived.

There are many standards that can apply to software used by documentation and used in the delivery of documentation. Two groups of specific standards that relate to the design and production of technical documentation are the Australian Standards for Editing Practice produced by the Institute of Professional Editors (IPed), formerly the Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) onscreen accessibility guidelines. You may have found others that relate more specifically to your own study or work area.

Task 2: Determine technical documentation requirements

Activity 1: Documentation for programs

Note the following scenario:

Your organisation’s software development team has been complying with all the documentation requirements for the development of new programs, except for one issue.

The comments in their code, telling others what they’re trying to do with their program are random, cryptic, and inconsistent.

You are asked to write specifications for comments in programs. The conventions should apply to any of the languages used by the programmers for the organisation. The constraints and rules imposed on programs should be as simple as possible.

Q: What are some specifications that could be used for commenting within a program? Interview someone working in software programming or search the web for some sample specifications.

A: The specifications for comments within the code could include that:

• an overall comment should be included at the start of the program to identify the framework of the program or changes to the program
• comments should be used to describe the code that is not apparent
• all comments should be preceded by a blank line
• arguments should be commented if they are not clear
• comments should be aligned with the code.

Activity 2: Documentation requirements

Q: Think about the last time you purchased something that required installation or that you had to put together yourself. Did it come with instructions? Were the instructions complete, comprehensive, useful, coherent, accurate, accessible and clear? Did they help you or did you not refer to them at all?

A: The answer is depending on the product that i have bougth, if that product was the thing i have been used before. I am ever read or look at the instructions. However, if the product is come with the new technology or i never been use it for long time or that product is quite expensive. I might read through very quick to get some useful information.

Activity 3: The pros and cons of paper

Q: There are probably times when you would use one medium in preference to another. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of paper-based documentation as a means of learning about a program or a system?

A: Some of the advantages of paper-based documentation include:

• most people feel comfortable with books—they can write notes in them and they can read them without a computer
• they have the benefit of using the actual software while following the manual
• paper as a physical medium is easily handled by the user
• novice users, or those who are not computer literate may not be able to use on-line help
• paper-based documentation allows the user to add in their notes and bookmarks
• manuals can be modular to target the needs of various user groups
• paper-based documentation is portable, and production costs are less when compared to some other forms of digital media (DVDs etc)
• paper can sometimes offer greater detail than other media.

Some of the disadvantages of paper-based documentation include:

• paper deteriorates physically over time with use
• a manual is more difficult to update and provide flexible access methods
• it can not include sound or animation
• the physical size of a manual can be intimidating, which can put people off
• paper documentation must be massive to be able to cater for all the user needs, but individual users will usually only use parts of it
• it may cause the user to shift concentration from what they are doing to the manual.

Activity 4: The pros and cons of digital media

Q: What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of digital or computer-based documentation (other than video) as a means of learning about a program or a system?

A: The advantages of computer-based documentation include that:

• it can be flexible, provide vast amounts of information, and can integrate sound, text and animation
• it can be context-sensitive, providing help directly relevant to the function being used or to the task
• it is of great value in training and in advanced help features, like wizards and cue cards
• it is easy to update and revise, efficient to store, and cheap to distribute
• it can allow interaction
• no paper is needed
• it has cheaper packaging (CDs)
• immediate reference is possible (you don’t have to search for the manual).

The disadvantages of computer-based documentation include that:

• it requires computer literacy
• it often requires various plug ins to access files
• the computer screen places limitations on use
• it may require swapping from the task to the documentation, causing distraction from the task at hand
• as video it can take up large amounts of memory and be cumbersome to download.

Activity 5: The pros and cons of video

Q: Describe some and advantages and disadvantages of using video-based documentation to learn about a program or system?

A: The advantages of video-based documentation include that:

• it can provide a rehearsed and thorough demonstration or walk-through of a software application
• it best suited for presenting animation, sound, graphics and ‘real-life’ presentations
• it is good for training and promotion
• learner retention is generally higher than for printed media (it is generally more engaging)
• suitable for groups as well as individuals
• DVDs are inexpensive and easy to distribute (although development costs may be high)
• no paper is needed.

The disadvantages of video-based documentation include that:

• video requires specialist equipment and personnel to produce; the cost may be high for complex, multimedia material
• sequential access—while video is good for demonstrating sequential tasks, it is unsuitable for random access tasks as found for example in reference guides
• it is non-interactive and does not cater for different levels of users
• it can be easy to pirate
• it is expensive to update—a new video must be produced (rather than a new version of a paper of digital print resource)
• documentation is less detailed if reliant on video only.

Task 3: Design technical documentation

Activity 1: Types of documents

Q: Recall or identify different types of technical writing or documentation. Try to make a list of 15 different documents. Use an internet search engine to assist you in this activity, if you need to.

A: Table of technical writing or documentation examples—you may have listed other documents, which is fine.

Activity 2: Technical documents

Q: What technical documents have you seen or used? Note down as many as you can, the list may help you later. Alongside each document, note the good points, and any that you remember as not being helpful at all. Why were documents of a poor standard or with no standards less useful?

A: Documents at home might include:

• assembly instructions for do-it-yourself furniture
• the manual that came with your computer
• the blueprint for a house
• a text book for software development
• specifications sheet for your camera

Documents at work might include:

• system functional requirements with flow charts
• network diagrams
• computer programming language syntax manual
• functional requirements for a web site
• project work break down structure.
• Other comments you have made might vary even more greatly; yet you may have noted how documents of a high standard make it easier to understand, access and use technical information.

Activity 3: Information online

Consider the following scenario and do some research.

You are going to place documentation on the organisation’s intranet web site. You have two types of information to go on the site, with different audiences for each one. One type is technical documentation for software development and the other type is a manual about the use of that software. Even the words they use in different systems are different. You research the internet to find information that helps you decide how each different type of information might be treated on the site.

Q: Give a general outline of how the two different types of technical documentation in the scenario might be placed within the information architecture of a web site.

A: The software manual is technical information for technicians but also for users, it could be organised as a series of pages from a contents list or index and it might also have a glossary, index and search features for the general user. Glossary items might also be given their own pop-ups so that users can check terms as they go. Procedural parts of the manual might also be structured as a series steps that the user progresses through after they have checked the ‘next’ button (like those used in installation procedures).

The software development material is for an audience of technical readers or specialists, most likely IT staff. It might be accessible from a general navigation bar as the same level as the manual and provided as a choice of HTML pages or PDF files to select and download from a menu. For maintenance, a technician needs to find a procedure quickly, without all the solutions to other problems. They need to access information selectively. Individual specification sheets that can be downloaded and printed, or network diagrams, might be part of the documentation, for instance. Links to the software development documentation might also be placed at different relevant places in web pages for the software manual, effectively then at a lower level, and being there when users or specialists need additional, more technical information.

Activity 4: Documentation case study—functional specifications

Q: Research the Internet and find some information that helps you with the design of the technical documentation required for ‘functional specifications’ for software development. What sort of documentation would be required?

A: A functional specification for software developers is a formal document used to describe in detail a program’s intended capabilities, appearance, and interactions with users.

The functional specification is a kind of guideline and continuing reference point as the developers write the programming code. Typically, the functional specification for an application program with a series of interactive windows and dialogs with a user would show the visual appearance of the user interface and describe each of the possible user input actions and the program response actions.

A functional specification may also contain formal descriptions of user tasks, dependencies on other products, and usability criteria. Many companies have a guide for developers that describes what topics any product’s functional specification should contain.

Task 4: Obtain client sign-off on technical documentation

Activity 1: Sign-off and quality management

Where do sign-off procedures fit in with your organisation’s quality management policies?
By this stage of your learning you will have discovered that some organisations use the ISO 9000 family of standards as a basis to certify the quality standards of their processes, other organisations prefer alternative measures, such as Six Sigma.

Q: Using a web search engine, research the fundamentals of ISO 9000, and find where sign-off procedures for documents fits into the system? Write a brief report on your findings (about 250 words).

A: If your organisation has quality certification, ISO 9000 sets out the requirements for your quality management system. ISO 9000 is not a standard for ensuring a product or service is of quality; rather, it verifies the quality of the process, and how it will be managed and reviewed. So ISO 900 doesn’t guarantee the quality of the technical documents, it lays out the rules for the process for sign-off

Hence, ISO 9000 is directly related to your organisation’s procedures for sign-off, and those procedures may vary from one organisation to another.

There are four types, or levels, of documentation you will need to manage to achieve ISO 9000 standards for sign-off. These four levels form a hierarchy. The more detailed the document, the further down it belongs in the documentation hierarchy

Table: The ISO 9000 documentation hierarchy

Fourth-level documentation includes all the records and forms which are generated by the working system.

ISO 9000 document generation and control

Under ISO 9000, every department issuing documents is free to designate its own procedures and channels for processing documents, including sign-off. This is a matter for your organisation to manage. Your management defines what your distribution network is, and who has authority for sign-off and release of procedures.

• Authority—Define who has the authority to sign off on documentation changes?
• Obsolete Documents—Describe what you do to these (shred, archive, etc).
• Distributions—Who gets the documents?
• Identification and revision—How do you identify documents? How do you track their revisions?
• Appendices and forms—Do you include appendices containing extra reference materials pertaining to each document for sign-off?

Key terms

Configuration management: Configuration management refers to the storage and security of documents.

Glossary: A glossary is a list of words used in a document and can include key terms, specialist terms or terms likely to be new to readers or users of the document; glossaries can also include a list that spells out acronyms used.

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC): The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is concerned with standards and conformity assessment for government, business and society for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO): The ISO is a standard-setting body composed of representatives from national standards bodies.

Jargon: Language that is peculiar to a trade profession or other group, unexplained jargon or overuse of jargon is a common fault of poor technical writing.

Metadata: Metadata is data about data or planning information about a document. Metadata provides information about the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of a document.

Requirements: Requirements in this instance are what an organisation needs to support its goals and operations in regard to technical documentation, and can range from the content and functionality of the documents themselves, to the system of document control and distribution.

Scope: Scope relates both to the level of functional detail and depth for individual documents (no matter what media), and to the extent of work required in the process of creating technical documentation.

Standard: A standard is a basis for comparison, a reference point against which other things can be evaluated.

Standards Australia: Standards Australia is an independent, non-government organization, which, through a memorandum of understanding, are recognised by the Commonwealth Government as the peak non-government standards body in Australia.

Substantive editing: Substantive (or structural) editing involves an overall assessment of wether a document’s content, structure, language and presentation need improvement to meet the publisher’s and reader’s purpose and expectations, and any work from this. It is the stage before copy editing and can be done alongside a technical review of the document by a subject expert.

Technical manual: A technical manual can include properties, methods, events and controls for products or systems. It can include specifications, definitions and acronyms. (Few technical manuals answer all the questions, for all users and need to be cross-referenced from one document to another).

Technical resources: Technical resources can range from single-sheet specifications, manuals, CDs, online data or a small library offering a wide scope of information and covering subject matter in detail.

Template: A template is a document, much like a stencil or a model, which can be used over and over again without changing the original. Templates are a special type of document that can hold text, styles, macros, keyboard shortcuts, custom toolbars and AutoText entries.

Typesetting: Once this term described the physical process of setting metal type and now describes the work in formatting documents in page layout programs such as Quark or In-Design.

Use case: A use case is a description of how end-users will use a technical document, such as a software code. A use case is a way of specifying the end-users’ expected use of the software.

Version control: Version control is part of the management of documents to ensure the latest version is used, to ensure the accuracy of documentation that has been subject to review or editing, and that the version being used is the most up-to-date.