Everything about Software documentation

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: Software documentationA 5-minute orientation
2. Skim a recent paper: Artifact3-D: New software for accurate, objective and efficient 3D analysis and documentation of archaeological artifactsInfluential work since 2022
3. Pick up a classic book: 1990 census of population and housingThe most-reprinted book on the subject
4. Read the landmark paper: Extracting Development Tasks to Navigate Software DocumentationCited 70 times
5. Go sideways: Software developmentA closely related topic
6. Go sideways: V-model (software development)A closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Extracting Development Tasks to Navigate Software Documentation

  Christoph Treude, Martin P. Robillard, Barthelemy Dagenais · 2015 · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · 70 citations

• Enriching software architecture documentation

  Anton Jansen, Paris Avgeriou, Jan Salvador van der Ven · 2009 · Journal of Systems and Software · 69 citations

• Experimental evaluation of software documentation formats

  Bill Curtis, Sylvia B. Sheppard, Elizabeth Kruesi-Bailey · 1989 · Journal of Systems and Software · 55 citations

• Using Documentation as a Software Design Medium

  S. D. Hester, D. L. Parnas, D. F. Utter · 1981 · Bell System Technical Journal · 49 citations

• Top considerations for creating bioinformatics software documentation

  Mehran Karimzadeh, Michael M Hoffman · 2017 · Briefings in Bioinformatics · 38 citations

• Supporting agile software development through active documentation

  Eran Rubin, Hillel Rubin · 2010 · Requirements Engineering · 28 citations

• Documentation strategies on agile software development projects

  Rashina Hoda, James Noble, Stuart Marshall · 2012 · International Journal of Agile and Extreme Software Development · 19 citations

• Software documentation is not enough! Requirements for the documentation of AI

  Florian Königstorfer, Stefan Thalmann · 2021 · Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance · 17 citations

🆕 Influential since 2022

• Artifact3-D: New software for accurate, objective and efficient 3D analysis and documentation of archaeological artifacts

  Leore Grosman, Antoine Muller, Itamar Dag · 2022 · PLOS ONE · 58 citations

• A mapping study on documentation in Continuous Software Development

  Theo Theunissen, Uwe van Heesch, Paris Avgeriou · 2022 · Information and Software Technology · 32 citations

• Towards optimal quality requirement documentation in agile software development: A multiple case study

  Woubshet Behutiye, Pilar Rodríguez, Markku Oivo · 2022 · Journal of Systems and Software · 24 citations

• Simplifying software compliance: AI technologies in drafting technical documentation for the AI Act

  Francesco Sovrano, Emmie Hine, Stefano Anzolut · 2025 · Empirical Software Engineering · 20 citations

• Automating Software Documentation: Employing LLMs for Precise Use Case Description

  Lahbib Naimi, El Mahi Bouziane, Abdeslam Jakimi · 2024 · Procedia Computer Science · 19 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• 📕1990 census of population and housingUnited States. Bureau of the Census · 1992
• Beginning Web programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSSJon Duckett · 2004
• Coding for dummiesNikhil Abraham · 2015
• Html for Fun and Profit/Book and Cd RomMary E. S. Morris · 1969
• Beginning HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScriptJon Duckett · 2010
• Documenting Software ArchitecturesPaul Clements · 2002
• Writing Software DocumentationThomas T. Barker · 1997
• HTML for dummiesEd Tittel · 1995

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics

• Software development Software development is the process of designing, creating, testing, and maintaining software applications to meet specific user needs or business objectives…
• V-model (software development) In software development, the V-model represents a development process that may be considered an extension of the waterfall model and is an example of the…
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• API writer An API writer is a technical writer who writes documents that describe an application programming interface (API). The primary audience includes programmers…
• Requirements analysis In systems engineering and software engineering, requirements analysis focuses on the tasks that determine the needs or conditions to meet the new or altered…
• Software quality In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions: Software's functional quality reflects how well it…
• Software testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software meets its intended objectives and satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective…
• Software factory A software factory is a structured collection of related software assets that aids in producing computer software applications or software components according…