Hyderabad Technical WriterA blog for Technical Writing Tips and Tricks, Quick Reference Guides, Technology, Hyderabad, and India
Release Summary or Release Notes
The Release Summary or Release Notes is a document that is distributed
with software products. Its contents are:
· A brief overview of the product (in the absence of formal documentation).
· A listing of what is new in this release and new features.
Process of Generating Release Summary
As Readmes, Release Summary documents are also created and updated
based on the inputs provided by the development, QA, and Technical
Support teams. The Technical Writer or the Technical Publications is
responsible for formatting the Release Summary in the tool or a
template, which is approved by an organization.
Note: Since this document contains technical information the Technical
Writer can refer to the following resources:
· PRS (Project Requirement Specification)
· SRS (Software Requirement Specification)
· PES (Product Enhancement Specification)
· DDS (Detailed Design Specification)
After the Technical Writer or Technical Publications updates the
Release Summary document with relevant information, it is essential
that this deliverable is sent for reviews to ensure the deliverable is
complete, accurate, and error-free. In order to achieve this, the
Technical Writer or Technical Publications should send the document
for technical review for technical accuracy and copy edit for
consistency in word usage, style, spelling, grammar, punctuation,
layout, and formatting issues.
Release Summary Contents
The contents of a Release Summary usually contain information about
the new features added and changes made to existing features to the
product.
A typical Release Summary file contains the following sections and topics:
– New Features
– Changes (or Enhancements) to Existing Features
It also provides cross-references to the appropriate guides or online
help system, if the feature is covered in more detail like:
architecture diagrams, flow charts, and so on.
Miscellaneous
One of the major advantages that Release Summary provides is that all
the concerns and issues can be clarified. And, the requirements, if
any, can be requested by the client without testing the entire product
for the features and enhancements in the product.
Release summary has the potential to verify whether the product or
process hurt someone, or if any damage is done. And, to avoid this and
to ensure that clients do not sue the company for confirmation or
claim’s made regarding availability of the features as discussed with
the client. This can be done when a legal representative reviews the
document before the product is made available to the clients or
customers.
Uses of Release Summary
· You can review new and enhancement’s to the existing features for a
product at a glance.
· Contains straightforward, specific information (in brief) related to
the features of a product.
· Clients have an opportunity to review (and confirm) whether the
features or enhancements requested by them have been implemented in
the current release.
· This deliverable acts as a quick reference for the features
supported by the product in the current release.
· You can easily navigate to the specific features using Table of
Contents (TOC) rather than going through the entire document.
Vivekanand Raula
