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Topics in Testing Software
Documentation
[Reading assignment: Chapter 12, pp. 183-191]

The good old days
• Software documentation was:
– a readme.txt file copied onto the software’s
floppy disk
– a 1 page insert put into the shrink-wrapped
package containing the software
– comments in the source code!
– Unix man pages are still in vogue, however …
• Testers ran a spell checker on the file and
that was about the extent of testing the
documentation.

Today …
• Much of the non-code is the software
documentation, which requires much effort to
produce.
• Documentation is now a major part of a
software system.
– It might exceed the amount of source code!
– It might be integrated into the software (e.g., help
system)
• Testers have to cover the code and the
documentation.
– Assuring that the documentation is correct is part
of a software tester’s job.

Classes of
software documentation
• Packaging text and graphics
• Marketing material, ads, and other inserts
• Warranty/registration
• End User License Agreement (EULA)
• Labels and stickers
• Installation and setup instructions
• User’s manual
• Online help
• Tutorials, wizards, and computer-based training
• Samples, examples, and templates
• Error messages

Importance of
documentation testing
• Improves usability
– Not all software was written for the Mac :-)
• Improves reliability
– Testing the documentation is part of black-box
testing.
– A bug in the user manual is like a bug in the
software.
• Lowers support cost
– The exercise of writing the documentation helped
debug the system.

Testing software documents
• Loosely coupled to the code:
– E.g., user manuals, packaging fliers.
– Apply techniques on specification testing and
software inspection.
– Think of it as technical editing or proofreading.
• Tightly coupled to the code:
– E.g., documents are an integral part of the
software, such as a training system or TurboTax
Deluxe (fancy videos, hyperlinked manual, etc).
– Apply techniques such as black-box and white-box
testing.

Documentation
testing checklist
• Audience:
– E.g., make sure documentation is not too novice or too
advanced.
• Terminology:
– Is it suitable for the audience?
– Terms used consistently?
– Abbreviations for acronyms?
• Content and subject matter:
– Appropriate subjects covered?
– No subjects missing?
– Proper depth?
– Missing features described accidentally?

Documentation
testing checklist (cont’d)
• Just the facts:
– All information technically correct?
– Correct table of contents, index, chapter references?
– Correct website URLs, phone numbers?
• Step by step:
– Any missing steps?
– Compared tester results to those shown in the documentation?
• Figures and screen captures:
– Accurate and precise?
– Are they from the latest version of the software?
– Are the figure captions correct?
• Samples and examples:
– Do all the examples work as advertised?
• Spelling and grammar

Auto-generated code
documents
• Tools such as:
– Doxygen
– Javadoc
– ROBODoc
– POD
– TwinText
can be used to auto-generate the code documents
from source code comments and create HTML
reference manuals.
• Code documents can be organized into a reference
guide style that enables programmers to quickly look
up functions or classes.
• Comprehensive survey of code documentation tools:
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_documentation_generators
/**
* The time class represents a moment of time.
*
* author John Doe
*/
class Time {
/**
* Constructor that sets the time to a given
* value.
* param timemillis is a number of milliseconds
* passed since Jan 1. 1970
*/
Time(int timemillis) { ... }

Discussion …
• Who should write software
documentation?
• Why is documentation a second-class
citizen compared to code?
• Why is keeping code/executables and
documentation consistent difficult?
– Is the problem inherent or due to sloppy
software engineering?

You now know …
• … the definition of software
documentation
• … the importance of testing software
documentation
• … what to look for when testing
software documentation
• … methods for testing software
documentation

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Jittu

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