User Documentation covers all the manuals, user guides, installation guides, setup guides, read me files, software release notes, and online help that are provided along with the software to help the end user to understand the software system. User Documentation Testing should have two objectives:-

1) To check if what is stated in the document is available in the software

2) To check if what is there in the product is explained correctly in the document

3) This testing is plays a vital role as the users will refer this document when they start using the software at their location. a badly written document can put off a user and bias them against the product even the product offers rich functionality.

Defects found in the user documentation need to be tracked to closure like any regular software defect. Because these documents are the first interactions the users have with the product. A good User Documentation aids in reducing customer support calls. The effort and money spend on this effort would form a valuable investment in the long run for the organization.

A good observation is that projects that have all the documents in place have a high level of maturity as compared to the un-documented project.

This is a trend in today’s testing process. Yet there are a few companies that pay little or no attention to documentation and are only attentive towards the software development process.

Documentation for an organization saves time, cost and makes testing easy and systematic.

It is equally important for the client’s acceptance because documentation defines a software product’s effectiveness. If the documentation is poor, deficient, or defective, it may affect the quality of software or application. QA practices should be documented such that they are repeatable, and are not dependent on any individuals.

During manual software testing, documentation will include specifications, test designs, test plan, prevalent business rules, reports, configurations details, changes in code, test cases, bug reports, user manuals, etc.

As a part of documentation, there needs to be a system for easily finding and obtaining documents and determining what documentation will have a particular piece of information.

Once the details are documented, they should be placed at a common databank where easy search and timely availability of the records is feasible. These documents come handy in times of any dispute or comparing the requirement specification with the delivered product.

Few essential software testing documents that need to be used and maintained on a day to day basis:

1) Test design document

2) Test case specification

3) Test Strategy

4) Test summary reports

5) Document of Weekly Status Report

6) User Documents

7) Document of User Acceptance Report

8) Report of Risk Assessment

9) Test Log document

10) Test plan document

11) Bug reports document

12) Test data document

13) Test analysis

There should be standard templates for all the kinds of documentation starting from Test strategy, test Plan, Test cases, and Test data to Bug report. It is imperative for the testers to synchronize the quality process with documentation standards and other process in an organization.

Documentation is also very effective when automated testing or software performance testing is planned to be executed.