Documentation Guidelines - Requirements Engineering and Management for Software Development Projects - page 230

number followed by decimal point and a serial illustration number within the
section/chapter. Suffixing of illustration number with alphabets such as A, B shall
be avoided for stand-alone illustrations. However, where illustrations are grouped
together and presented at one place, the illustration number may be prefixed using
alphabets A, B, C, etc. The first letter of all the principal words in the caption shall
be in capitals.
Each illustration shall as a general rule, be placed after the first reference to it
and as near to it as possible, without needlessly breaking into the middle of a
paragraph. However, an illustration requiring frequent reference from multiple
locations of the document may be given at the end of the document.

A.2.13.2 Line Graphs

Line Graphs are best used to depict trends or changes over time, or relationships
between two or more variables. The guidelines for preparing Line Graphs are:

1. The independent variable shall be represented on the X-axis
2. The dependent variable shall be represented on the Y-axis
3. Keep the plot lines to the minimum—in any case not more than five per graph
4. When more than one plot line is used, make the lines clearly distinguishable by
the use of colour, solid lines, dotted lines, dashes etc.
5. Include a legend within the graph
6. Begin the Y-axis at zero. X-axis need not begin at zero
7. Keep all the gradations equal
8. Label items on the axes.

A.2.13.3 Bar Charts

Bar Charts are best used to compare multiple alternatives with each alternative
depicted as a bar. The guidelines for preparing Bar Charts are:

1. Begin Y-axis at zero.
2. Break the bar with wavy lines or slash marks between zero and the lowest value
when the bar is too long.
3. Keep all the vertical gradations equal and all the horizontal gradations equal.
4. Keep width of all bars equal. Keep the width of the space between bars equal.
Make the bars wider than the space between the bars.
5. Arrange the bars in some order—alphabetically, chronologically, ascending or
descending order etc.
6. Distinguish between the bars by using contrasting colours/hatch-patterns.
7. Include a legend within the graph.
8. Label items on the axes and the bars. Place figures within the bars or at the top
of each bar to give accurate values.