Data-Driven Intranets

Project Control and Deliverables

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Natural divisions ... General and project ... database and user interface

Effort on the general makes for long term coherency ... can do it along the way "Plan while building"

General Standards for All Projects

Deliverables: Objectives and Structure

• What are the core deliverables that will be developed for each project?
• What will be their content and structure?
• What will be the criteria for successful completion of these deliverables?

General System Architecture

• What is the overall structural pattern we will be aiming for?
• If there are more than one, what will be the criteria for choosing one over the other?
• What will be the preferred tool set for development?

User Interface Standards

• What will be the common characteristics of the user interface to maximize presentational consistency, coherent structure and easy navigation?
• Can we create a model system to emulate?

Master Data Model

• How does the project data model integrate into the enterprise data model?
• Can we use data that already exists in other systems?
• Are there opportunities work with other projects to co-develop shared data structures?

Master Data Dictionary

• What are the business-wide definitions of terminology used on reports and screens?
• What variations on these definitions exist between different user groups?
• Can we achieve consistent labeling of data elements on all reports?

Standard Business Object Interface

• What are the core properties and methods in the Business Object Layer interface?

Standard Database Access Interface

• What are the core properties and methods in the Data Access Layer interface?

Source Code Control

• How is source code protected?
• Where is it stored?
• How is the storage structured?
• What other files need similar protection and version control?

Test and Production Environments

• What environments exist for testing?
• How are production systems protected from development activities?
• How are tested program updates promoted to production status?

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Project Design Deliverables

System Architecture

• What are the major infrastructure components of the system?
• What platforms, languages and tools will be used for the components?
• What are the boundaries of the current project?
• How does the system integrate with the rest of the corporate information structure?

Data Model

• What are the normalized database tables needed to support this system?
• What are the fields in each table?
• What are the relationships between the tables?
• What are the anticipated de-normalized structures of critical reports and displays?

Data Dictionary

• What is the business definition of each table field?
• What is the internal representation?
• What are the rules of validity for each field?

Working Prototype

• What will the user-visible system components (screens, reports, etc) look like and how will they function?

Object Model

• What classes need to be created for this application?
• Which pre-existing classes can be used?
• What are the properties and methods in each class?
• Which of the requirements can be satisfied with the standard interfaces of the Business Layer and Data Access Layer? Which special purpose classes need to be created?

Functional Design

• For each function identified in the object model, what are their functional descriptions, arguments, and return types?
• What are the dependency relationships with other functions?

Special Interface Requirements

• What legacy system interfaces are involved?

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