Templates

Definition

Template

a convention that acts as an incomplete initial version of a work product (typically a document or software component)

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, templates are part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Convention
• Subclasses: None
• Example Instances:
  • Templates for requirements specifications
  • Templates for architecture documents

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of a template are to:

• Improve producer productivity by eliminating the repetative development of boilerplate content.
• Improve standards compliance by providing an initial version that conforms to content and format standards.
• Improve work product quality by providing an initial version of known high quality.

Guidelines

• Reusable templates for specific work product documents are accessible via those work products. For example, see the system requirements specification template
• Document templates may come in multiple forms based on the word processing tool and format required (e.g., Microsoft Word, XML).
• In this website, templates are stored with and primarily accessible via the associated work product.