Types of deliverables
Product documentation⎹ Training materials⎹ Process documentation
Product documentation
User guides are probably what most people think of when they hear about written instructions. They can include various manuals: quick-start guides, installation guides, how-to guides, and the like. User guides are what you will usually find when unboxing newly bought gadgets or appliances. They may have a book-like structure with content divided into chapters (“operation instructions”, “maintenance and cleaning”, etc.), but they can just as well come as single-page leaflets with pictures instead of words. User guides can be published in downloadable formats such as PDF, or/and they can be printed out and delivered as physical copies. The target audiences may include both regular end users as well as technical specialists (e.g., low-level implementation guides for engineers).
Online help is what you will likely use when you get lost in your operating system or in other type of software. Just picture that question mark icon you sometimes see in an interface of an app, or a window that pops up when you press F1. Online help is embedded in the software’s interface in such a way that you can quickly refer to it without leaving the app. You normally open it only when you have a specific problem; is not designed to be read as a whole. Online help should be contextual, i.e. when you click the “help” icon, it should display a topic that is relevant for your current state in the app. Search boxes are very common too, but they are pretty much the standard now for most of digital documentation.
Mobile application help is very similar to online help, only that it refers to apps on mobile devices. For this type of documentation, the design is very important. Mobile help should be properly adapted to the limited viewing space of a mobile device, and it should scale well on different screen sizes (on smartphones, tablets, etc.).
Knowledge Bases are those big, website-like support portals; they are essentially online platforms with many articles, how-to-guides, reference information, FAQ and download sections, and so on. For a good example, check out the Dropbox Help Center.
Release notes is what you see pop up in an app whenever there is an update. They are brief notes that inform you about changes introduced in a given version (i.e., a release) of software: new features, extended compatibility, bug fixes, etc. Release notes are often archived in sections named “version history” or similar.
API documentation are documents for software developers who work with an application programming interface (API). They help programmers make two apps (or services, systems, and so on) work together. For example, when you are writing an Android app and you want your users to be able to log in through their Facebook account, you will need the Facebook API to implement that. API documentation describes endpoints, lists possible parameters, return values, etc.; it may also involve tutorials on how to perform various low-level procedures.
Training materials
Presentations are probably best known in the form of PowerPoint slides or animated Prezi templates which public speakers use to captivate their audiences. Presentations are used for lectures, training sessions, product demos, etc. They are usually heavy on visuals, which can include both images and videos; this is just one of many cases where tech writers’ design skills can come in handy.
Classroom trainings involve a broader scope of materials, including physical and digital content: presentations, textbooks, handouts, exercises, quizzes, certificates, and the like. This type of materials can aid both students as well as class instructors.
E-learning courses typically take place on special online platforms. They tend to be self-paced, i.e. students log in at any time, study for as long as they wish, and advance at their own pace. The material should be so designed as to require minimum to no supervision from class instructors. It is usually divided into a series of topics and grouped into sections. A section may end with a short test which students must pass before they can move on.
Webinars are prepared in cases when physical class attendance is impossible, inconvenient, or not desired. They combine the benefits of e-learning with bidirectional communication between students and instructors, similarly to classroom trainings. Webinars are held in the form of video conferences, and often with a chat, where students can ask questions in real time.
Process documentation
Project documentation is essential for a well-organized project. It is created at the earliest stage of project work and can be later used as an input for the subsequent planning phase. Documents of this type include project proposals, requirements, specifications, etc.
Policies and procedures are created within an organization to describe – and to prescribe – how the organization should function. They provide rules and guidelines on how various business processes should be executed. Since the processes in question are usually repeatable (e.g. recruitment of new employees), a lot of time, effort, and money can be saved once they are standardized. With policies and procedures in place, workers don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” every time they deal with a common process. Documents of this type increase transparency in a company and allow for more efficient management.
Reports are documents that involve an analysis of a given topic, often with numerical data, charts, tables, etc. The structure and the length of a report will vary depending on the topic and the target audience. Reports are prepared for those who need an analytical overview of some data, either for reference or for further analysis: managers, quality assurance specialists, business partners, etc.
🖊️ NOTE: This description was based on the ITCQF training syllabus. Some organizations might follow a slightly different classification or naming convention for documents.
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