International Organization for Standardization

Systems and software engineering - Requirements for designers and developers of user documentation - First Edition
 N ISO/IEC 26514

Annotation

This clause presents the scope, purpose, organization, and candidate uses of this International Standard.

This International Standard supports the interest of software users in consistent, complete, accurate, and usable documentation. It includes both approaches to standardization: a) process standards, which specify the way in which documentation products are to be developed; and b) documentation product standards, which specify the characteristics and functional requirements of the documentation.

The first part of this International Standard covers the user documentation process for designers and developers of documentation. It describes how to establish what information users need, how to determine the way in which that information should be presented to the users, and how to prepare the information and make it available. It is not limited to the design and development phase of the life cycle, but includes activities throughout the information management and documentation processes.

The second part of this International Standard provides minimum requirements for the structure, information content, and format of user documentation, including both printed and on-screen documents used in the work environment by users of systems containing software. It applies to printed user manuals, online help, tutorials, and user reference documentation.

This International Standard neither encourages nor discourages the use of either printed or electronic (onscreen) media for documentation, or of particular documentation development or management tools or methodologies.

This International Standard may be helpful for developing the following types of documentation, although it does not cover all aspects of them: