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software documentation in PhD

  • 14-06-2009 3:15am
    #1
    pwd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,284 ✭✭✭


    I am doing a postgrad centred on developing a commercial software application. It's funded by Enterprise Ireland.
    I've developed a working alpha, and am writing the transfer.
    I'm writing about the appication itself. If anyone reading this has done a research postgrad based on developing software maybe they could give me some advice:

    I'm not sure how much I should document the software.

    It doesn't include a patentable algorithm, so one issue is maintaining the commercial viabilty of the tool.

    Aside from that I'm no sure how much detail there should be anyway. It's a web-based application which uses webservices to communicate with a database. So far I have included diagrams describing the structure of tables in the database, and described the webservices/api, and the structure of data that is passed there. I'm documenting the client-side now, and I'm really not sure how much detail I should go into. Full description of the application with UML, an overview, or what?


Comments

  • #2
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,539 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    pwd wrote: »
    software documentation in PhD
    Ask your thesis chair?


  • #3
    2Scoops
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,845 ✭✭✭2Scoops


    Is there anyone else in the dept. who has successfully written a transfer like this you could ask for advice? My own inclination is to keep things relatively simple, so it won't interrupt the flow, but include specific details as an appendix, so the curious will be satisfied.

    Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about software development!


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