2018-08-28 Tuesday - Published Updated High Level Design (HLD) Template

https://github.com/intltechventures/Consulting.Project.Tools/blob/master/templates/HighLevelDesign.md
 

Rationale: Numerous times, in my travels as a consultant, I've encountered organizations in which there is no established standard/template for what should be included in an HLD. Quite often (even in organizations that ostensibly have a template), the artifacts that architects and engineers produce devolve into a Wild Wild West of anything-goes. Consistency engenders repeatability - which can help reduce variability in quality - and thus, a worthy goal.

Therefore, the intended purpose in sharing this...at least as a starting point for further customization by a client organization.

STATUS: DRAFT

The goal of an HLD is to facilitate communication and coordination, both within internal teams and organizations - as well as serving as a tool for communication and coordination with external partners.

The HLD provides a consistent format for teams to assemble details - which supports a goal of being able to achieve some level of reuse of design artifacts - and is intended to provide sufficient information to Program/Project Management to be able to plan, estimate, and coordinate large-scale development efforts. Additionally, an HLD servces as an effective mechanism to support Design Review and Architecture Governance efforts.

The ideal place for an HLD to live is in a Wiki or in a Markdown file (i.e. in the git repository for the project)

The target level of detail is to scope the effort, provide sufficient input to the estimation process, and to clearly articulate the How of an approach.

The What should be ideally defined in a collection of User Stories, Use Cases, Feature Requests, etc. - or, minimally, in a Business Requirements Document (BRD).

Investing effort in the creation of the HLD is intended for larger-scoped projects/epics - that have some non-trivial number of unknowns, technical complexity, a high number of coordination points, or extensive external integration/coordination requirements.