Design Rationale Documentation

Design Rationale

From Thomas P. Moran and John M. Carrol. "Overview of Design Rationale." in Design Rationale / Concepts, Techniques, and Use, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996.
 
  • An expression of the relationships between a designed artifact, its purpose, the designer's conceptualization, and the contextual constratints on realizing the purpose.
  • Documentation of (a) the reasons for the design of an artifact, (b) the stages or steps of the design process, (c) the history of the design and its context.
  • An explanation of why a designed artifact (or some feature of an artifact) is the way it is.

    • Motivation

  • Organize the decision process
  • Record decision-making process for subsequent use during maintenance

    • Issues

  • "a point, matter, or question to be disputed or decided"
  • Stakeholder have positions on issues
  • Arguments or discussion can support or object to a position
  • Discussion of issues can lead to the raising of subordinate issues
  • Discussion of issues can lead to the identification of gaps in knowledge or data

    • Documenting Design Decisions

  • Title: usually in the form of a short question
  • Identifier: for tracking purposes
  • Date: actually a "last changed" date together with a revision history
  • Keywords: for providing subsequent access
  • Status: OPEN, RESOLVED, DEFERRED, etc.
  • Description:  elaboration on the issue providing background, motivation, definitions of terms, etc.
  • One or more Positions: proposing a decision on the issue
  • For each position
  • Supporting arguments: discussion supporting the position
  • Objecting arguments: discussion undermining the position
  • Links to subordinate issues raised
  • Gaps: unavailable knowledge needed in order to reach a decision
  • References: link to supporting/objecting documentation
  • Technology assessments
  • Stakeholder input
  • Descriptive scenarios
  • Literature