Generic Spec Template

From UG

Contents 1 General Info and Scope 1.1 Scope 2 Business Requirements 3 Notes from Systems Architect 4 Rapid Design 5 Detailed Design 5.1 Summary 5.2 User Interface 5.3 Functionality / Use Cases 5.4 Special Cases and Misc 6 QA 6.1 Test Cases 7 Look and Feel 8 Figures 8.1 Figure 1: 9 Misc 9.1 Link to User Guide 9.2 Questions 9.3 Request For Comments (Suggestions and Ideas) 9.4 Known Non Critical Bugs 9.5 Implementation: Link To DB 9.6 Implementation: Link To Front End Code 9.7 Implementation: Link To Back End Code 10 History of Updates 10.1 Links to Archived / Old specs 10.2 ..... <Update Summary> ..... 10.2.1 Update General Info 10.2.2 Update Description

General Info and Scope

• Classified As: (small) (large) component / common feature / ...
• Parent Mantis: tbd
• Prerequisites: any articles that must be read before to understand this?

Scope

• List what it covers and what it does not

Business Requirements

• This section is defined by Business Analyst
• In this section this component/feature is defined from the business standpoint. All important points are listed. It could include some design details if business insists on specific design.

Notes from Systems Architect

• This section is defined by Systems Architect. It is written after #Business Requirements are defined.
• The purpose of this section is to give direction to System Analysts who will write detailed specification.

Rapid Design

• In some cases (component is non standard) we need to do preliminary not so detailed design before detailed final. And maybe even code it to create Prototype
• This section does not have to be too detailed or too formalized. We shall not spend too much time on Prototypes - they can change many times.

Detailed Design

• This section is defined by Systems Analyst.
• It contains detailed technical design is written after #Business Requirements and #Technical Requirements are defined.

Summary

User Interface

Functionality / Use Cases

• This section you could spit into two. But often it is hard to do since often most of functionality is UI related

Special Cases and Misc

• If any exist

QA

This section is to be written by QA Engineer or QA Manager or Systems Analyst.

Test Cases

• List unusual scenarios - things that user most of the time would not do but system must handle well
• Do not list Common Test Cases - link to them

Look and Feel

• This section is to be written / defined by Graphic Designer and UI Designer.
• This includes:
  • final graphics
  • final layout
• Layout defined here should refine, provide more detials to "functional definitions" of UI as defined in #User Interface and Functionality section above

Figures

Figure 1:

Misc

Link to User Guide

Questions

Request For Comments (Suggestions and Ideas)

Known Non Critical Bugs

• Critical bugs must be posted into Mantis

Implementation: Link To DB

Implementation: Link To Front End Code

Implementation: Link To Back End Code

History of Updates

Links to Archived / Old specs

..... <Update Summary> .....

Update General Info

• mantis: <link> if applicable
• update type: Re-design / Tweak / Etc
• Spec updated?
  • #Business Requirements - Y/N
  • #Detailed Design - Y/N
  • #QA - Y/N

• Ideally update all sections of spec (see above) right away. If you have no time to update spec now or multiple people have to be involved then define task here and come back to update later. In this case add links from here to Category:Spec TBU. This would list spec as To Be Updated (TBU) in related category. See below.

• If #Business Requirements (BR) section is not updated then add this wiki under Category:BR TBU
• If #Detailed Design (DD) section is not updated then add this wiki under Category:DD TBU
• If #QA (QA) section is not updated then add this wiki under Category:QA TBU

Update Description

• Briefly explain what was done and list links to updated sections.