Technical documentation encompasses information that describes the functionality and architecture of products under development or in use, including patents and data sheets. It includes types such as test methods and verification and validation procedures, critical in ensuring products meet specified requirements. The documentation is aimed at various audiences, including end users and technicians, and is formatted to be accessible, often requiring translation by technical writers.

1. TECHNICAL
DOCUMENTATION
WHY SHOULD WE MAKE USE OF TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION?

2. WHAT IS TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION?
• Technical Documentation is the general term applied to published information of any sort
which has the sole purpose of describing the functionality, architecture as well as the
handling of any product which is either under development or currently in use.
• Such Technical Documentation is usually in the form of patents (the series of unique rights
which are granted to an inventor or their assignee for a very limited time by the sovereign or
head of state in exchange for the public disclosure of their intellectual property or invention)
as well as lists of components or data sheets (which summarize the performance of the
invention as well as its other technical characteristics in sufficient detail so that a design
engineer is then able to integrate certain components into a system).

3. TYPES OF TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION
• Other types of Technical Documentation include:
• ‘Test Methods’ - These are definitive procedures which are capable of procuring the
results of tests. These results are then left to be considered as a part of a technical
operation to determine whether one or several characteristics of a certain product
correspond to a specified procedure.
• ‘Verification and Validation’ - Independent procedures which, when used
together, ensure that a certain product or system is capable of meeting certain
requirements and specifications in order to fulfil its intended purpose.

4. IMPORTANCE OF TECHNICAL
DOCUMENTATION
• Technical Documentation plays a very significant role in the process of developing a certain
product, service or process and there are three key types of document used during such a
process. The first type of these is System Requirements; the second, System Design, concerns
the process of identifying and defining the components, architecture, modules, interfaces
and data for a system in order for it to satisfy previously identified requirements. The third
type is System Architecture (the conceptual model which is intended to define the
structure, behaviour and multiple views of a system).

5. FORMAT AND TARGET AUDIENCE
• But who is the intended audience technical documentation? It is not only produced for the
benefit of the end user, such as the consumer, but also for the administrator as well as
service and maintenance technicians (in the case of a technical system).
• Whereas normal manuals are in a ‘cook book’ format, the layout of Technical Documentation
is intended to provide enough information so that any user to be able to understand the
inner and outer dependencies of certain products. Technical Writers, therefore, are employed
to translate the typically high and much formalized Technical Documentation into a prose
format which is very easy to read.

6. WHERE CAN I FIND TECHNICAL
DOCUMENTATION SERVICES?
• We are a leading supplier of Technical Publications, Training, Translations, Integrated Logistic
Support, Through Life Support and Operational Support Systems to both the Defence and
Commercial Markets in the UK and overseas. Click here to visit our website.