User Manual

During initial design, the mindset of the design team is closer to that of the eventual users then it will ever again be once the system becomes operational. Thus it is not irrational to at least sketch out the user manual for the final system at this point, even before the first line of code has been written.

The user manual does not depend in a detailed way upon the implementation details, so it can be developed (at least in large part) before the implementation.

The narrative of the user manual can be made to flow naturally from the process of walking through scenarious.

Finally, the user manual may be an excellent vehicle to present to the client to ensure the vision of the development team matches that of the client.

[audio] 33 [real] 33 Text to accompany slide 33, in Chapter 2 of An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming