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Design documentation [Mandatory]

Software architecture design documents, sometimes also called technical specifications, include the main architectural decisions made by the solution architect. Unlike software requirement documents that describe what needs to be built, the architecture design documentation is about how to build it. It describes in what way each product component will contribute to and meet the requirements, including solutions, strategies, and methods to achieve that. It includes:

  • Architecture & design principles - It defines the  guiding architecture and design principles to be used to engineer the product. For instance, it may define that the solution will be built using microservices architecture
  • Solution design details. Describes the contemplated solution by listing planned services, modules, components and their importance. The design details include:
    ○ System architecture
    ○ User Interface (UI) Design
    ○ Integration Design
    ○ Database Design
  • Diagrammatic representation of the solution. Includes diagrams and/or other graphic materials to help understand and communicate the structure and design principles.

In the agile methodology, the design, development and testing phases are iterative and therefore the design documentation can be updated incrementally.