Documentation December

In the new year we'll be starting either 3.5 or 4.0 (more on that in the coming weeks). Now that 3.4 is done we're using December for some doc and proc work including:

• Up until now the specifications were written for each version of the software. For example, the spec for global actions was in the Luna (RPM 2.7) document set. As we accumulate more versions we've started having to search through multiple version specs to get a complete set of rules for an area of the application for testing, training, and design. So now, we're going to create one unified set of specs and update it each version. There will still be a separate document for each version, but it will just be a schedule and summary of what's new.
• We've got other chores too, like updating our internal processes documents. Those range from setting up a new programmer workstation to upgrading the servers. And what a great time to make a documented internal process to document internal processes. By which I mean to avoid another project like this in the future we'll put in a place a process to have a smaller documentation review time at the end of each version.
• Finally, if there's time left (we start developing in January no matter what) we're going to look back over some defects that made it past testing and see if changes can be made to how we build and test so similar problems don't happen again. This analysis happens to a degree when the defects are encountered, but at that time the priority is getting the fix done. Doing analysis now allows us to look back from "outside the storm". If don't get to this before the Christmas holiday, we'll schedule it for a future between versions break.

I'm leading this documentation effort, but I'm also going to make sure enough design work is done on the next version to get started building it right away when the team gets back in January. We're shoring up the feature candidate list now and it will be posted to this journal first, probably this week or next.