Main Components of a “Release Notes” Document

Release Notes is an important document in software documentation for various reasons. It’s a great source of information when the product development team needs to include the details of what they’ve done, what has been improved and what has been fixed.

The release notes typically summarize details that are not highlighted by the main release. They also come in handy when there’s a need for project managers to calculate time estimates for certain tasks without having to go through carefully reading every minor change individually.

“Release Notes” is an important document in software documentation for various reasons.

First off, keep in mind that the typical software product is released in builds and versions. Every year, or every couple of months, a new-and-improved version of the product is released to the end-users. That’s the nature of the business.

A software product is not a static object. It evolves through time by adding new features, fixing old bugs, and acknowledging existing bugs that may catch the customers by surprise. “Release Notes” answers all those aspects.

It aims to educate the customers about the new features, announce those bugs that were fixed in the new release, and acknowledge those issues that the development team is still working to resolve. Plus, it can contain important Notes that fall into nether of those categories as well.

So here are the main sections of a Release Notes document:

1. New Features

2. Resolved Issues

3. Known Issues

4. Notes

Rawpixel at unsplash