"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think."
-- Edwin Schlossberg

Management Tips

{Project Name}

Functional System Design

Remove italicized comments within this template from the final document

INDEX

CONTACT & DISTRIBUTION
REVISION HISTORY
QUALITY CONTROL
Development Methodology
Change Control
Audit
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
System Overview
Scope
MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
System Overview
Business Objectives
Scope
Assumptions
Constraints
Roles & Responsibilities
FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM DESIGN
Infrastructure
Platform
Operating System
Languages
Database
Network
Development Tools
Operational Support
Process Design
Data Model
APPENDIX A - WORK PLAN
APPENDIX B - OTHER SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
APPENDIX C - GLOSSARY

CONTACT & DISTRIBUTION

Prepared by:

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:

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

Project Life Cycle

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.

APPENDIX B - OTHER SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

Reference via hypertext link.

APPENDIX C - GLOSSARY

Reference via hypertext link.