Treat Documents as Evolving Entities |
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| Written by Graham Stoney | |||
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Treat documents and other design information as evolving entities which mature throughout the life of the project. A document may be in draft form at its first review; later on it may be reviewed again when the information is more complete and more certain. When a draft design document is first reviewed, it may only contain architectural information about the design. It makes little sense to proceed to detailed design until the architecture is settled upon. Later, the same document may be reviewed again once the detailed design information has been developed. Avoid naming documents “Preliminary” or “Draft”; give them names that describe the final contents they will have, and assign maturity levels (like “Preliminary” or “Draft”) to them that vary along the life of the project. Use a configuration management system that allows you to go back to earlier versions of the document if necessary.A good designer begins by writing a brief draft architectural description of how the design will meet its requirements, and then reviews it with the relevant team members. It is important to balance the level of detail so that the effort of the entire design team is optimally utilised. Architectural documents should mature before detailed design documents, and the maturity and level of detail should be consistent for documents at the same level in the project hierarchy. Putting too much detail in low level documents too early in the project may lead to significant re-writing if design changes occur higher up in the design hierarchy.
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