Installation guidelines

Have you ever had a chance to write an installation document? It’s a document that has a list of softwares, and guidelines for those softwares, needed for your project. I recently was involved in writing such a document. It was the first time I was involved in making this kind of document, I made it as a document which will help me to remember the next time I install the same set of softwares, in case of a crash. According to me I wrote it well and I was able to repeat the installments easily.

Later on I passed the same doc to my other team members so that they can also install the softwares on their computers. Most of the members faced a lot of problems while installing the softwares. I had to go to their seats and help them with many steps.

After doing all this, I realized that the problem with document was that I made it according to my level of understanding and assumed that everybody else will also understand it as I did.

I think the right way of making a doc like this should include following things:

• Including screenshots, screenshots can explain a lot of things in one glance and also gives the confidence to the user that he is on the right path.

• Writing every step explicitly, don’t assume anything about the users. You should write in details about every step you undertake during the installment process.

• Get it reviewed by a naïve. This is the best thing to do, get it reviewed from someone who knows nothing about your project, or the softwares you are installing. The inputs you will get from this person will help you to improve your doc a lot.

• Iterate the process. Once you have improved the doc try to iterate through these steps. Include more screenshots, write few more descriptions and again get it reviewed.

I think after doing all this we will have a doc that can help anyone install the softwares with ease. That was the ultimate aim of making this document in the first place. Always keep the user experience on the top of your checklist.

I never thought that writing an installment doc is an important thing but it taught me a lot of important things and I thought I should share this with others as well.

I thought while going through :
1. the mumbai roads, on my way back to home and thinking about the day passed.
2. the staircase again and again to fix the problems faced by other team members.

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Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology