The standard outline presented here, in different forms, is a tool
to assist you in writting technical papers (especially in computer science).
It is relevant for a wide range of, but not every single, type of
technical paper. It is certainly appropriate for Master's and Ph.D. theses,
for conference and journal papers, and for technical reports. It is
also appropriate for proposals, although the speculative nature
of a project or thesis proposal requires some adaptation of the
form. It is less appropriate for user documentation, but still
explicitly represents a number of important issues that must be
handled when writing product manuals.