Design – Build – Run: Applied Practices and Principles for Production-Ready Software Development

4.4. Summary

In this chapter you've seen a number of analysis and design considerations and the potential array of outputs that can come out of them. It is important to consider as many aspects as possible prior to full scale development to ensure that the appropriate foundations can be put in place. You've seen that all these inputs ultimately have their place in the "out-of-the-box" contents. This chapter has highlighted some of the inputs and how they can be improved to ensure quality. The case study that it used in this book is described later, and I'll use a number of these inputs to describe its functionality and technical behaviors.

This chapter has also provided a high-level overview of the types of design considerations and the inputs to further design and development activities. Throughout this book we'll build on these, which can then be folded back into the analysis and design activities to provide a more robust scope and design. This information can then be used for effective estimating and planning.

As you have seen, walking through the design of two very simple pages has outlined a myriad of considerations and design outputs. The more that you can do up front, the more scope you can flesh out. And you'll also have a much better understanding of how long it will realistically take to implement. You should try to cover as much as possible. The best way I find to do this is to assume that I'm on the receiving end. You shouldn't assume that the person you're giving ...