The company that I work for has expressed a desire to start having a more formal software design process, and I’ve been asked to get the ball rolling.
I’m looking for a source – a book, a website, whatever – that has some useful templates or skeletons for architectural design documents and detailed design docs. I already have an idea of what type of process I plan to recommend, but I need to firm up the details. Having some pre-made documents to start from would make things a lot simpler.
So… any recommendations?
Don’t have time to check right now, but StickyMinds.com, the web site for what used to be Software Testing and Quality Engineering Magazine (STQE = sticky, get it?) has a pretty extensive library of templates and documents related to software development. I used them a lot in my days managing QA, but a lot of them are general development process documents.
I don’t know what they have in the way of templates, etc., but Software Development magazine has lots of articles on development issues, particularly process-related stuff.
I find Baseline magazine pretty useful these days as well.
I’ve also used a lot of stuff from TechRepublic.
Be forewarned that some of these sites require registration for access to articles and library files, and even though registration is free, you’ll get e-mails from Baseline and TechRepublic pretty frequently (at least a few times a week).
What is the reason for not creating your own templates?
Here’s kind of a thumbnail sketch of how I usually write technical documents:
Page 1: Document Title (Along with a version number or the word “PRELIMINARY”)
Page 2: Notes (Notes to myself on what still needs to be done before the document is complete, version numbers and revision comments.)
Page 3: Table of Contents (Generated by your document development software.)
Page 4: Objective (Define the intended audience, technical knowledge prerequisite assumptions, comments about the scope of this document, etc.)
Page 5: System Overview (Where this system fits into the “big picture”. A paragraph or two on each of the major “functions” of the system.)
Page 6: System Operation (How to start, stop, configure, and maintain the system. Assumptions, limitations, side-effects.)
Page 7…: Functional Decomposition (In outline form, document each function, then sub-functions, etc. Explain how each function interacts with the other functions. Assumptions, limitations, side-effects. List of proposed new features.)
Supplemental Information: (File formats, diagrams, tables, etc.)
You misunderstand. I will be creating my own templates. However, I’d like to look at other templates, and draw upon them if it proves helpful. After all, why re-invent the wheel?
Gantthead.com is the best site for IT project management. Register as a free member. This will enable you to download a fair number of project deliverable templates and checklists.