Include the name of the document's author, author's telephone and email address.
Contributors:
List contributors to this document, and the nature of
their contributions.
Primary Contact:
All questions and comments about the project should
be addressed to the primary contact. It will be the responsibility of
the primary contact to answer or direct the questions or comments to the
appropriate parties.
The primary contact is usually the Project Leader. Include email link.
Distribution:
List the mailing list, Usenet group, web address, or
other method of intended distribution.
REVISION HISTORY
Date of Revision
Revised By
Description of Revision
Affected Modules
QUALITY CONTROL
Development Methodology
For the purposes of this project, we are using a simplified Project Life
Cycle, the details of which can be found at www.kuhnllc.com.
Change Control
Detail the change
control plan in two contexts:
The context of changes to the SPECIFICATIONS and DESIGN. Strongly discourage changes to the specifications and design. Encourage up-front thinking and you will be better able to maintain project focus as it proceeds.
The context of change control for documentation, source, and
resources. List how revision control will be accomplished, where the
revision control is located, who has access, etc.
Audit Plan
How do we know we did a good
job? Testing and Peer Review should be addressed here.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The intent of this
page is to give a high level overview of the project, directed to upper
management, financial backers, etc. Should be limited to one page. A
good bit of this information will be summarized from the Business Proposal Document, so don't overdo it, except where changes have occurred.
System Overview
Scope
MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
System Overview
Narrative of what the
system does or is supposed to do. Identify processes and functions, both
automated and manual, that are being replaced or eliminated as a result
of this project.
Business Objectives
Describe what is to be accomplished with this project. Usually it is simply to fix a problem or to take advantage of the opportunity specified above.
If no changes from the Business Proposal, include hypertext link to the proper
target in BP.HTM.
Scope
Specifically state the boundaries of the project. List what's NOT included as well.
If no changes from the Business Proposal, include hypertext link to the proper target in BP.HTM.
Assumptions
Enumerated List of the circumstances that exist that will affect the
outcome of this project (such as the availability of a specific personnel or
resources).
If no changes from the Business Proposal, include hypertext link to the proper
target in BP.HTM.
Constraints
List the factors that are outside of the project's control, but to which the project must conform, such as the need to conform to particular interface specifications. These constraints may seem like "requirements," but they are different in that these are not functional requirements of the project itself but are externally imposed limitations.
If no changes from the Business Proposal, include hypertext link to the proper
target in BP.HTM.
Roles and Responsibilities
If no changes from the Business Proposal, include hypertext link to the proper
target in BP.HTM.
If you have names at this time, include them and any e-mail
addressses or contact information.
Show an organization chart, if appropriate, and state clearly who has
responsibility for managing the project and coordinating effort.
FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM DESIGN
This
section of the template is deceptively short. It should include the entire
functional specification of your system. However, as this is highly
variable, I can't tell you specifically what to do. But the guidelines
are:
Infrastructure
Include items that you
aren't directly developing, but are required for your project to work as
planned. This includes, but is not limited to:
PLATFORM
Hardware platform. This may
or may not be important.
OPERATING SYSTEM
This is important
no matter what. If the development is to be platform-independent,
that's an extremely important design criterion that can get overlooked if
it's not spelled out.
LANGUAGES
Languages selected for the
project, and for what each language was selected.
DATABASE
Was an external database engine
used? If so, what? Why? Is it portable, or is that not a
consideration?
NETWORK
What is the topology to be
used. Is this app to be limited to a single machine? LAN? WAN?
Internet-enabled?
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
List specific
development tools not otherwise listed.
OPERATIONAL SUPPORT
What else
will you need to implement and support this program? Object
Brokers?
Process Design
Include Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs)
Data Model
Include Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD) Entity
and Attribute Descriptions
APPENDIX A - WORK PLAN
Recommend linking to
an external schedule that is kept in revision control.
