Re: Need examples of system documentation

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

deltaskye wrote:
> I am returning to IT system tech writing after an absence of four years. My client wants me to document a system that is already in place; the engineer who designed it did not write anything down! 
> 
> I will be working with a new engineer to try to document the system (not for end-users, for the company's internal/engineering use). The engineer will be the technical SME and I will be the scribe and desktop publisher. The system is used by staff to register new customers for a service, document customer service calls, and transmit each day's activities to another system.
> 
> The engineer has asked me to provide him some examples of what the documentation might look like. I have all kinds of stuff generated when other customers followed an organized SDLC as they were designing a system. I'm looking for ideas on how to frame the documentation as the engineer and I try to document a system that someone else designed (and who is no longer available).
> 
> I don't know if the following is helpful, but here are some of the topics the engineer has suggested:
> 
> External data interfaces
> Oracle database management system
> BEA configuration
> System backup/restore
> 

Funny you should ask... I've been combing the web
lately for system administration documentation for
a paper I'm giving at the Usenix LISA conference
(called "WTFM: Documentation and the System Administrator").
It's the most nervous I've ever been about presenting
at a conference because my audience won't be tech writers
and I haven't actually worked in a sys admin environment.
(If anyone has examples of bad internal sys admin docs.
please let me know - I promise to remove all company
identification :-> )

But enough about me. Try searching for:

system administrator internal documentation
documentation system
documentation server

I've also found that http://techrepublic.com is
a great source of information. I'm not sure how
useful it will be, but they link to a set of templates
for some aspects of system administration docs at
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5027838.html?tag=rbxccnbtr1

Best of luck!

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address

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