Capturing Design (When you really have to)

A presentation at XP2016 to discuss how to capture design information, when this is valuable, what to capture and how to do it effectively.

1. EOINWOODS
ENDAVA
@eoinwoodz
20160525.2

2. Capturing
Design
The Problem
Why
Document
Design?
How?

3. People move
jobs
Organisations
change
Memories Fade
Priorities
change
Knowledge
Attrition

4. Knowledge
Attrition
•“untouchable” code
•mysteriously failing tests
•odd decisions from long ago
•new extensions are always
an adventure!

6. Reducing
Knowledge Loss
Why we need
more than code
How design
information helps

7. Limitations of
code
The truth not the whole truth
Many people don’t read code
Organised for machines
Mismatch with communication

8. Design as a
Record
Design for
Communication
Design for
Analysis
Using Design
Information

9. •
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10. •
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11. Effective
Design
Artefacts
Principles
Pragmatics

12. •M
•U
•S
•I
•C
•AUDIENCE
•PURPOSE
“MUSIC”

13. •PRINCIPLES
•
•DECISIONS
•
•ELEMENTSRESPONSIBILITIESINTERACTIONS
•
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14. •WORKINPROGRESS
“Indexed” and “checked” are Nat Pryce’s suggestions to add to
the “minimal”, “significant”, “usable” set I proposed. These look
important to me, but I haven’t thought them through yet.

15. •WHO
•TECHNICAL
• KNOW
• UNDERSTAND
•WHAT
• TASKS
• INFORMATION
•CHARACTERISTICS

16. •
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17. Low
Fidelity
High
Fidelity
Abstract
Detailed

18. Fidelity
Cost
Naming
Linking
Embedding
Shared
Versioning
Architecturally
Evident Coding
Shared Tooling
But beware limits!

19. George Fairbanks –Just Enough Software Architecture

20. •
LINKCODEDOCUMENTATION
•
• RECENTAPPROACH
•
•ANNOTATECODE
•EXTENDEDMODEL

21. https://www.structurizr.com/

22. Effort
“Quality”
Morning
Standup
Team Wiki
Review
Documents
Long-term
record
Regulatory
Deliverable
Product
Documentation

23. Database
CalculationEngine
Batch Processor
Change Notifier
User InterfaceServices

24. Little and OftenCreate a
commons
Find evidence
of use

25. RECORD
•FUTURE
NEEDTOKNOW
•LONGEVITY
•SEMANTICS
•LINK
•ORGANISE
COMMUNICATE
•WHOWHY
•CLARITY
•THROWITAWAY

26. • CODESTORY
• WHOLESTORY
•KNOWLEDGEATTRITION
• RECORDCOMMUNICATE
•PRINCIPLESPRAGMATICS

28. RESEARCHDESIGNERS
ATTENTION
SURVEY

29. Eoin Woods
CTO
Endava
@eoinwoodz
www.eoinwoods.info
[email protected]

30. •
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http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/techn
ology-blueprints-23277500.jpg
•Design for Communication -
http://optymyze.com/