An approach to software design documentation

This paper presents an approach to developing system design documentation and then programming the software code directly into the specifications. An introduction to the purpose and content of design documentation is given, along with a description of current practices which are used in the development process. It is recommended that the documents be developed using automated methods. The code is then implemented directly into the files containing the specifications. These techniques should result in better configuration management and control of software changes. It is more likely that the specifications will be kept current throughout the life cycle of the system. The documentation should be more useful to the maintenance software engineer. The methods should be less costly compared to current techniques.