What documentation is helpful when supporting an application?

Question

I am going to be taking over from a developer here at work soon. Hence, I'll be supporting all the applications that he has written over the last few years.

My question is, when supporting an application that you probably don't know much about, what kind of documentation is most helpful to get a handle on how to fix problems, extend functionality, modify functionality, etc? I'm thinking it would need to give you an overview of what the software does, what interfaces it has to other software, what databases it uses, usernames, passwords, and so on.

Is there such a thing as a software support document? Referrals to any templates would be most helpful.

BTW, unfortunately, there are no requirements documents, specs, etc! So, really my question is, if my colleague had a day to write a single document for each application so that I could (more easily) support it, what would that document be and/or what would it look like?

Answer 1

Hello,

I would ask for primarily some sort of flow chart/schema of the way the app functions.

I would want to be able to know how each file interacts with other files (and the database). So this way, you'd know where to start to fix a bug or add a new feature, etc.

So to do a quick, text mockup of it:

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Index.php -> Login.php -> Dashboard.php

Index.php: Has login box. Submits login into to login.php

Login.php: Verifies data with database entries, shows error on fail or sends to Dashboard.php

Dashboard.php: Once logged in this acts as a main menu

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Something along these lines? For basic documentation I'd think this is the way to go.

Hope this helps. Good luck!