Watt's Up Musings of an original geek

Well back a post or two in Postcreative Depression I was talking about having to stop programming and start writing a System Design document. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but after a while I got into it. So last Friday I finished it. It was based upon a template consisting of 32 chapters, for example, Requirements, Design Overview and Objectives, Performance, NLS (National Language Support), etc. The biggest section deals with the design of the External Interface. Since this is the development of an Application Programming Interface (API) written for the Java environment, the entire API had to be documented – each and every class and method. To do this I created source code for all of the Java classes and methods, then added documentation comments, and used the javadoc command to generate HTML documentation which was imbedded in the External Interface chapter. I’ve gotten really good at creating a Microsoft Word document which is composed of many imbedded files which themselves are imbedded further. When done the document was 279 pages. Next our sponsors, development, and test teams have to review it. So the ball is in their court. Now I have to develop a work break down spreadsheet, that is, a detailed accounting of all the tasks that need to be done and how long each will take.