Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Developer Specications
Developer specifications (
dev specs
) are documents that tidy up the completed work by listing what has been
done and any important notes that document pertinent information. In Chapter 3 we worked with an Excel
spreadsheet titled StarterBISolutionPlan that outlined the official development specifications (Figure
19-5
). This
is an informal version, and if written well enough, for small projects this may be sufficient for your needs.
Figure 19-5.
The StarterBISolution Excel spreadsheet
As the solution planning progresses or as the project grows, this informal Excel file is used as an outline to a
more official document called a Solution Development Plan. This plan will become the bible to your BI solution.
It is a living document that is updated on a regular basis.
This document is created in Microsoft Word rather than Excel, and it lists more details about the solution
objects. This document can be used as a starting point for your dev specs. The difference between the two is that
one was made during the development cycle and represents the current state (any time during development)
of the solution, while the other represents the final outcome of the solution. Figure
19-6
shows how similar they
look, which is intentional.
