Technical manual requirements

Define how the end-user will benefit from reading the technical manual and what will they achieve after doing so. When your readers know exactly what to expect from the manual, the buy-in goes up significantly. Having the end-result in mind will also help you write the manual better, with your objective as your north-star. Next, you need to gather requirements for your technical manual.

What are the frequently asked questions by customers? Where do most customers face issues or challenges? These are the questions you need to answer before kickstarting your technical manual documentation. A great point to start is to bring together your customer service reps and sales staff under one roof and ask their suggestions and feedback. Since they are the ones who interact with the customers the most, they have the most in-depth insights into customer wants and needs.

You can also conduct an online survey with your existing customers and ask them about their pain points. You can then address these pain points in your manual and improve customer satisfaction substantially. Technical manuals can be lengthy.

It helps if you first create a structured outline and follow it religiously. From your requirements gathering phase, list down your main points you are going to cover in the manual and divide them into headings, sub-headings, categories, sub-categories, or topics. Not only will it be easier for your team to create technical manuals, but it will be easier to browse for the end-user as well.

Most technical manuals are filled with plain-boring text and technical jargon no one reads. This leads to dissatisfied customers.

Make your technical manuals interactive by adding images, videos, infographics, and more wherever it makes sense. Since humans are visual creatures, we all understand better when we have a visual context around something we are reading.

If you explaining something in steps, adding screenshots to guide the customers to the end-point can do wonders. Accuracy is key as it can make or break your customer experience. Technical manuals are live documents that require constant updating. These are not one-off documents you can create and forget about. Once you publish your technical manual, make sure to do a survey or follow up with the end-user on the effectiveness of the manual, and understand the things they like and dislike.

Moreover, whenever your product releases a new feature, there needs to be an added entry in the technical manual explaining it. Lastly, investing in a robust documentation tool can cut your work in half and allow you to save both the time and effort required to create these manuals.

Our go-to document editor is Bit , a new-age documentation and knowledge management tool that provides a common workplace for technical writers, managers, and employees to create, manage, and share workplace documents like technical manuals. You're almost there! Just enter your email below and get instant access to the nuclear electrical engineer's trap-avoidance handbook.

By signing up you agree to our terms. The NRC explained this in the background information published in association with the rule change: This extensive use of technical specifications was due in part to a lack of well-defined criteria in either the body of the rule or in some other regulatory document for what should be included in technical specifications.

A process variable, design feature, or operating restriction that is an initial condition of a design basis accident or transient analysis that either assumes the failure of or presents a challenge to the integrity of a fission product barrier.

A structure, system, or component that is part of the primary success path and which functions or actuates to mitigate a design basis accident or transient that either assumes the failure of or presents a challenge to the integrity of a fission product barrier. A structure, system, or component which operating experience or probabilistic risk assessment has shown to be significant to public health and safety.

The NRC explained: LCOs that do not meet any of the criteria, and their associated actions and surveillance requirements, may be proposed for relocation from the technical specifications to licensee- controlled documents, such as the FSAR. Previous Previous post: When to get the best deals throughout the year.

Next Next post: Interesting facts about the nuclear power industry. Free Report. Technical requirement documents will also provide information that will help you:. In determining your initial list of technical requirements, be aware that there are other documents that are also being prepared by other teams within your company. These documents are about the same project but for different audiences.

Make sure you gather the information that is most useful to you. Michael Shrivathsan, the Vice President of Product Management at Accompa , is an expert on types of requirement documents and their functions. At large companies 1, employees plus , they typically do use all three of these docs. Most mid-sized companies employees or more use at least two of them.

There may be important information in these other reports that can inform, influence, or create contingencies with your technical requirement document. Here are some other documents that may be created by other departments to support your project:. A business requirement document defines the goal of the project from the viewpoint of the business. Documentation for this phase delineates the business goals at a high level.

From the business requirement document, you may learn the following information that could help you with your technical requirement document:. Market Requirement Document MRD Written by: Product Managers, Product Marketing Managers Audience: Business Managers Reviewed and approved by: Director-level A market requirement document adds more information to the BRD, in terms of what the market needs, and pinpoints the current market landscape for products or programs like the one you are developing.

From the market requirement document, you may learn the following information that could help you with your technical requirement document:.

If no one in your company is preparing the above reports, you may have to do some extra leg work to get the full picture of the universe in which your product will exist. Software development technical requirements include components such as development planning, technical architecture, software testing, and deployment.

Fellman advises that good technical requirements documentation starts by focusing on the results you want and not overly focusing on the process. Because where you want to go determines everything about how you are going to get there. Everest, but you might ride one if your end-goal was to reach an ancient tomb in the Egyptian desert. You may want to consult with your developers and ask, from their viewpoint, what is doable and what is not.

Using a templated checklist, such as the Requirements Collection Checklist from Smartsheet, can help you stay focused on the types of information you should be collecting as part of your technical requirements analysis.

Be sure to include:. Gather Information from Diverse Groups Smith suggests information for these kinds of documents can come from a variety of sources, including end users, customers, developers, and other stakeholders. Information can be collected through interview, surveys, questionnaires, research, or even roundtable discussions between and within teams. Employ Usage Analysis Identify the types of users who will be using your product and figure out their usage patterns.

This will help when it comes to determining any requirements necessary for the level of performance you wish to achieve. Develop Use Cases Models for interactions by typical users should be included in a technical requirement document or in the business requirement document, using case diagrams and case reports. Explore Needs and Desired Outcomes Consider gathering the following types of information for your technical requirements document:.

Define end user expectations and needs, and how the product will be used in the real world. Ask questions here are some samples :. Create a prototype to help clarify the outcomes users anticipate from the new product or system when complete. Define the entire lifecycle of product development, including people, process, software and technology development, change management.

Consider System Qualities Consider the following system qualities when describing the quality of service you need to meet your business and user requirements. Once you have defined your technical requirements, take the time to validate and refine them. For Smith, validating the requirements was a process of getting as many eyeballs on them as possible, listening to feedback, and discussing the implications of keeping or rejecting a given requirement.

But once you have them, prioritize them and work on the top-priority requirements that fit your time and budget. Sometimes it's not the biggest requirements that are the most important.

Today, there are tools that give stakeholders a view into the development process directly, where they can see progress tracked visually, review but not edit requirements as they are being implemented, and test early prototypes.