Design Spec Documentation

[kmcginn]

My company is embarking on a rewrite of an existing software package from the ground up. We are changing the development and delivery applications and are in the process of estimating time needed for the whole life cycle form discovery through testing and delivery.

As the Crystal developer in the group, I need to estimate the Crystal portion of the application. We use Crystal exclusively to write the forms and reports for the application.

In view of the Sarbanes/Oxley act, we have been impacted greatly as far as documentation about all functions in the application, including our Crystal forms. I will need to write Functional Design and Technical Design specs for each Crystal form or report in the applicaiton. Our group has some expertise in FDS and TDS for application (.net) development, but none for Crystal development.

Anybody have any knowledge of FDS or TDS formats that would lend themselves to Crystal? A little backgroud might be helpful, in case I am not using quite the correct terminology. By Functional Design Specs, I am referring to documentation which would allow a user to "sign off" on the report as exactly what they want. It would include functionality, formatting, and whatever business logic information is needed for the report. By technical design specs, I mean documentation which would include the fields, formulas, subreports, etc to be included. It would be thorough enough for a QC tester to be able to use to test the report or form before implementation.

I am mainly looking for some kind of template document or format that would be useful, but any and all tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

 

[synapsevampire]

There are numerous tools to aid in functional spec design, inclusive of the built in export format of eport Definition File.

Of the 3rd party offerings, Report Miner is one of my personal favorites, but there are plenty:

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

As for the Functional Design specs, that's a different story and is typically done by a BA PRIOR to report development, and demonstrates business rules, something not often found within a report itself.

You might consider hiring a BA.

-k

 

[kmcginn]

Thanks, k. Unfortunately, we're going about this a little backwards, since we already have an application, complete with reports and forms. The whole thing will need to be rewritten as we are changing the application tool and the delivery method. We are trying to duplicate what we already have, but we need to document it to estimate time and to be compliant with Sarbanes/Oxley.

I'll check out that site. Thanks for the info.

 

[chelseatech]

I'm a great fan of the "Report Analyzer" tool from Cortex Systems in Australia. It has some analysis reports that might help you identify the complexity of your conversion tasks.

Go to

http://www.cortexsystems.com.au

for a trial download.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

http://www.chelseatech.co.nz/pubs.htm

 

[kmcginn]

Thanks, so much for the response. I'll check it out.