ERD, Flowcharts and Other Documentation

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FooLab ERD, Flowcharts and Other Documentation FrOSCon - August 25, 2012

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FooLab What It’s Not About • Not a full analysis and design course • Not a demo of modeling tools • Not a detailed explanation of symbology 2

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FooLab What It Is About • What diagrams serve what purpose • Tie diagrams together • Real world examples • More examples 3

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FooLab Anna Filina • PHP Quebec - user group • ConFoo - non for proﬁt Web conference • FooLab Inc. • I write code. • I train and supervise programmers. 4

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FooLab Why No Docs? • Don't know where to begin • It's boring • There’s no point • Get out of date • Nobody reads them • Lean and mean 5

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FooLab Not Always Boring 6

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FooLab The Real Problem • Don't understand diagrams • Diagrams serve no purpose, not helpful • Mistake diagrams for waterfall model • Inadequate tools 7

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FooLab Conference Management Software

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FooLab Use Case 9

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FooLab ER Diagram 10 0 or more (many) 1

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FooLab ER Diagram 11 Non-identifying Identifying

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FooLab ER Diagram 12

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FooLab Data Flow Diagram 13 External entity

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FooLab Data Flow Diagram 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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FooLab Data Flow Diagram 15

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FooLab Common Mistakes 16 • Data not stored. • Black hole. • Grey hole. • Spontaneous generation.

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FooLab Flowchart 17 Input Output

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FooLab Mockups 18

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FooLab Mockups 19

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FooLab Function Reference • Session • bool isSelected() • void mailConﬁrmation(), check logs • bool saveVote($user, $vote) • Automate tests of input/output. 20

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FooLab Source Comments • Inline comments // simple and short explanations • /** * Commonly used above functions. * Can use annotations with phpDocumentor or other. */ Descriptive blocks • Comment when it’s fresh. • Big functions with lots of comments = split function. 21

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FooLab Putting it all together A.K.A. “The Manual”

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FooLab Manual • Deﬁne chapters. Example: 1. Scope (Use Cases) 2. Database (ERD) 3. Processes (DFD + Flowchart) 4. Mockups (later screenshots) 5. Classes + usage 23

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FooLab Manual • Write topics in bullet point • Add diagrams • Write paragraph under each bullet • Move topics and chapters around • Fill in with details 24

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FooLab How much to write?

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FooLab Application Complexity 26 More docs Less docs Grandma’s recipes vs Facebook

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FooLab Security Requirements 27 Grandma’s recipes vs IAFIS ﬁngerprints More docs Less docs

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FooLab Financial Impact 28 Grandma’s recipes vs Forex currency trading More docs Less docs

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FooLab Team Size 29 Yourself vs 20 devs More docs Less docs

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FooLab Team Proximity 30 Same ofﬁce vs Remote More docs Less docs

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FooLab Good Documentation • Makes your software easier to build and maintain • Makes your team more effective • Discover new features before implementation 31

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FooLab Mind Maps

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FooLab Systems Analysis and Design and/or UML book

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FooLab Next Steps • I will tweet the slides: @aﬁlina • Please leave feedback: http://bit.ly/anna-docs 34

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FooLab Ask me which software I use. astah, Balsamiq