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From:
Juan Lanus <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Juan Lanus <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:18:54 -0300
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David.

Sorry I didn't answer then, I also got lost in time because of too
much pressure at work these weeks.
When I saw your original request it sounded to me like a description
of "Use Cases".
Not the UML kind that can only be read by UML readers, but the textual
kind that can be read by everybody, both the loftier and the final
users.
Use Cases are specificacions capture, not design. But design can be
attached easily.
The textual UC methodology has many advantages. The most important is
that anybody can read and understand then.
The second most important feature is flexibility: you can adapt the
template accordint to your needs and preferences, and modify it as you
change your mind.

There is a book, sort of a tutorial, easy and fast to read:
"Writing Effective Use Cases" by Alistair Cockburn 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/sim-explorer/explore-items/-/0201702258

The UC defines the interaction, the dialog between the system and
(mostly) the "primary actor". There is a "main success scenario"
describing the flow of actions in the plain vanilla straigth normal
operation from start to end.
This is a "scenario", the steps for a particular usage. But things can
happen differently, for example when you are extracting cash from an
ATM it can happen that it ran out of $20 bills, or that you can't
remember the PIN, or ...
All that variations are defined in the "extensions" section.
Finally a UC is the main scenario and all the variations that make all
the other possible UCs. This makes the UC "the mother of all
scenarios." This way you nail the operation specs.
Now once you know and documented what the system is supposed to do
then you go for the widgets.

I didn't think how to document enhancements/changes, and how to do it
in print (I imagine you need this to have the documents signed).
What I like to do is to change the old text to gray and add the new
one. I'll think of it. It's easy to save the document's history in the
ever cheaper disk storage of our computers, the problem is how to show
previous and actual state os the same UC compared.
--
Juan Lanus
TECNOSOL
Argentina

An initial draft template with too many features and a blazing yellow
BG to show writeable areas during tests:
http://ar.geocities.com/juanmlanus/ui/uc01.html

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