Light weight design document templates in Markdown format. Documentation is often ignored or under utilized during many design or development processes due to lack of emphasis or access to an easy starting point. These templates are meant to provide that starting point and ease the start of documentation. Descriptions of each section in each document are provided to refresh the memory at each point in the process.
Documents are evolved and adapted from multiples sources in attempt to create a generalized approach that suites as many design patterns and systems as possible.
Documents listed in order of expected completion. However, order is flexible based on the needs of the team and the project and often times the writing of the documents will overlap. General order should be: Requirements -> Planning -> Design -> User Manual
Vision Document - The vision document provides an outline of the motivation behind the project. It should be completed prior to or concurrently with the requirements document. Together these documents should provide the designer(s) with the necessary information to create a complete design for the system or application.
Requirements Document - The requirements document provides a detailed list of requirements and their descriptions. It should be the culmination of all of the requirements engineering efforts and provide the developer(s) with enough information that they can understand the function and purpose of the system before development.
Use Case Model - In the case where modeling is being used to illustrate the system a use case model should be included. This document can be included in the design document if desired but it is given here as a separate document to increase its visibility. With the use case model the designers should be able to understand the user desired user interaction with the system and the outcome of each interaction.
Design Document - The design provides a full and complete design of the system and its components. It is to be completed after the requirements document and vision document are completed. It should contain any model diagrams used to illustrate the system and their detailed descriptions. With this document the developer(s) should be able to construct a full working system that meets all of the requirements previously outlined.
Test Plan - The test plan outlines all of the testing that is to take place and at which step and frequency it should be conducted. With this document and the design document, test developers should be able to construct a mostly complete test suite or system that will be used to find and control bugs during the development process.
Project Plan - The project plan should outline the development process in terms of team responsiblities and projected deadlines. Organizational tables and diagrams are included in this document. Each team member should be able to inspect this document to understand their role in the project. (This document can also be used to outline time and cost expectations for quoting or pricing purposes.)
User Manual - The user manual should provide a potential user with enough information to use each piece of functionality the system. It can be started at almost any point in the process following the construction of the use case model but should not be complete until development of the product is complete. Only once the product and all of its functionality (per release) is confirmed can the user manual be verified.