It was nice to read about the article like technical writing and Function Spec

Bharat

The list provided above still assumes “codex” (The Book) as the main format. However we all know that more and more in technical communication “topic” based “structured authoring” is replacing the traditional book-style documentation. And, you’re right, in that kind of environment Introduction does not make sense and no one reads it because they do not use the document in a linear fashion. They just jump to whatever topic they’re interested in to save time and energy.

However, the behavior described above is that of an intermediate or advanced user. A totally novice user may prefer a more incremental and gradual approach where one would start reading a manual from page 1 and proceed accordingly. In that context an Introduction of course makes sense. And for the sake of completion I listed it in the above article.

There’s one other reason why Introduction might be necessary — legal reasons. If certain crucial “system requirements” or other critical operational information are not included in the Introduction (or similar) chapter there may be a law suit if and when anything goes wrong due to lack of such information. So by including an Introduction (or Front Matter, Preface, etc.) the author may protect herself from such an eventuality. I recommend all technical communicators to consult their clients and the legal departments of their companies to understand the legal implications of including (or excluding) such information.

Again, thanks for the excellent question! Ugur