State of the Art

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State of the Art

The actual state of the art to write technical documentation is represented by DITA architecture. It proposes an end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. DITA provides a content model that defines the meta-language to design technical manual. The following are the consequences of the DITA model use:

  • modularization of information
  • reuse of contents

The development process that uses DITA architecture is well explained in: Overview of the information development processes - the contents are provided in an Information Centre.

The following list describes the types of technical documents that can be provided to a user:

  1. Planning and Installation Guide
  2. User's Guide
  3. Reference Guide
  4. Quick Reference
  5. Messages and Codes (Troubleshooting)
  6. Getting started - description of first steps and possible basic actions
  7. Developer Guide
  8. General information manual - product overview oriented to stakeholder

In all these types of documents we might apply the specializations of a DITA model. DITA foresees a scenario where these manuals are restructured in a unique repository of modularized information. \ Ideally, a manual could be viewed such as a view from an information model where the contents are represented and organized following DITA specializations.

This guide is for system architects, system administrators, and technical specialists who are responsible for the planning and installation of IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager. Users of this guide should have knowledge about the following technologies: v PC and UNIX® operating systems v Database architecture and concepts