1. DOCUMENTATION DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (DDLC)
For Technical Writers
PPT by Saritha

2. DOCUMENTATION DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (DDLC)
The Technical Writers follow a development cycle for creating documentation, which is known as Documentation Development Life Cycle. The Documentation Development Life Cycle (DDLC) maps with the SDLC such that the entire product team works in close coordination to complete the development, adhering to a common project schedule. Modeled on SDLC, the DDLC has somewhat similar stages as that of SDLC. However, the duration of stages varies according to the difference in availability schedule of inputs for various stages. Let us begin with taking a look at the stages in the DDLC.

3. STAGES IN DDLC DDLC stages include Gathering Requirements Design
Content Developing
Review/Edit/Proof-reading
Publish
Maintenance
Maintenance
publish

4. 1.Understand Requirements
Understand the Product or Application to be developed
Gain an understanding of the Domain or Subject Matter
Understand Client Requirements for Documentation
Study Legacy Documentation and Writing Style Guides used by the Client
Provide Content Consulting
Propose Documentation Deliverables and Tools to be used
Prepare Effort Estimate
Propose Team Size and Composition

5. 2.Design Prepare Templates and Stylesheets
Prepare an Outline or the Table of Contents for documents to be created
Create Content Strategy for Single-sourcing or writing for multiple user roles
Create a Documentation Project Schedule

6. 3. Content Developing
Gather Information: Read Design Specifications ,Interview Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Create Content Drafts
Create and Insert Graphics
Format the Content
Generate Output(s)

7. 4.Review
Language Review
SME or Technical Review
Client POC’s Review

8. 5.Publish Integrate the Documentation with the Product or Application
Send for final publishing or distribution

9. 6.Maintenance
Maintaining a document is vital as no software is perfect. There
will always be multiple versions and rollbacks to previous versions
as well. It is important that the technical communicator or the
SME keeps the content updated through it all.