Writing technical documentation for software developers is not unlike writing for any end user. An IDE, integrated development environment, is software that assists developers to author, modify, manage, compile, deploy, and debug software. In this presentation we will explore writing for a developer audience using a graphical, menu driven IDE, Oracle’s JDeveloper, to illustrate user assistance developed by a technical documentation team.

We will examine many familiar aspects of technical documentation applied to developing user assistance for an IDE:

Audience analysis – Who are the users of an IDE? What is their technical expertise? What types of information are needed to support a developer audience?
Documentation planning – How does technical documentation interface with the software development process? What roles can the technical writer serve on the team?
Subject matter experts – What resources and people are available to technical writers in developing user assistance?
Tools – What software is used by technical writers to produce user assistance for an IDE? What skills are useful for the technical writer to have or develop?