LinkDoc: An Automated Process in the Delivery of Documentation in a Global Software Development Environment

Documentation, among the phases of software development, is a crucial step for product acceptance, given that poorly made documentation can compromise product quality. In the context of mobile development, it is not always easy to deal with the rise in the number of released devices, the new technologies and specifications, the frequent updates to the Android operating system and the lack of experience of the people responsible for the development itself. Considering this, the authors of this paper conducted an experiment aiming to assist the development of technical documentation, reducing the time spent preparing and raising the degree of reliability in this information. Through simulations in a controlled environment, a group of employees were able to utilize this new approach to prove its efficiency. The automation of this process shows a reduction of up to 33.2%, that is, 10.3 hours less in the documentation’s total execution time. Furthermore, this paper shows that it is possible to raise the reliability of information, since the average error rate shown is around 5.3%. However, for employees who have an average experience level in the team (between 6 and 18 months), the error rate is under 1.7%. In a setting where one must deal with adverse variables, such as new employees, off-standard databases, a rise in demand, among others, those values are substantially satisfactory and the new process becomes essential for the team.