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A glossary is a collection of
definitions of terms. Every company has its own
specialized jargon, and you need to understand it if you
want to communicate effectively with the experts with
which you working.
You may want to include both
technical and business terms in your glossary. Although
you may understand what terms such as XP, C#, J2EE, and
application server all mean your stakeholders likely
don’t. Similarly your stakeholders may understand what
business terms such as convocation, grant, and
transcript mean but some developers may not. A glossary
which includes both the relevant technical and business
terminology goes a long way to improving the
communications between developers and users – if you do
not understand each other’s language you cannot
communicate effectively.
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Your organization may
already have an existing glossary in place if so then
reuse appropriate terms from it. Often your industry
will already have a specialized dictionary describing
common terms which you may want to adopt as well.
The best advice that I can give
about creating a glossary is to be realistic. You’re not
Webster’s – you don’t have to get the definitions
perfect, they just need to be good enough. Furthermore,
dictionaries have multiple definitions for most words so
don’t be afraid to do the same. Ideally you want a
single definition; realistically it often isn’t worth
the effort to argue it out if it’s even possible to come
to agreement.
An important issue with glossaries,
with all artifacts for that matter, is to make them
available to people. This is one of the reasons why AM
includes the
Display Models Publicly practice. You might
want to consider documenting your glossary as a single
HTML page that everyone can access and hopefully edit
(remember the practice of
Collective Ownership). Another option,
particularly if editing a major concern, is to use a
Wiki.
Remember that your
conceptual/domain model, if you have one, will also
refer to critical domain concepts. You should
strive to
single source information and capture a definition
in the most appropriate place possible. I suspect
that will be your glossary, not the domain model.
This artifact description is excerpted from Chapter 7 of
The Object Primer 3rd Edition: Agile Model Driven
Development with UML 2.
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The Object Primer 3rd Edition: Agile Model Driven
Development with UML 2 is an
important reference book for agile modelers,
describing how to develop 35
types of agile
models including all 13
UML 2 diagrams.
Furthermore, this book describes the techniques
of the
Full Lifecycle Object Oriented Testing
(FLOOT) methodology to give you the fundamental
testing skills which you require to succeed at
agile software development. The book also
shows how to move from your agile models to
source code (Java examples are provided) as well
as how to succeed at implementation techniques
such as
refactoring and
test-driven development
(TDD). The Object Primer also includes a
chapter overviewing the critical database
development techniques (database refactoring,
object/relational mapping,
legacy analysis, and
database access coding) from my award-winning
Agile Database Techniques
book. |
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Agile Modeling: Effective Practices for Extreme
Programming and the Unified Process is the seminal
book describing how agile software developers approach
modeling and
documentation. It describes principles and
practices which you can tailor into your existing
software process, such as
XP, the
Rational Unified Process (RUP), or the
Agile Unified Process (AUP), to streamline your
modeling and documentation efforts. Modeling and
documentation are important aspects of any software
project, including agile projects, and this book
describes in detail how to
elicit requirements,
architect, and then
design your system in an agile manner. |
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The Elements of UML 2.0 Style describes a collection
of standards, conventions, and
guidelines
for creating effective
UML diagrams. They are based on sound, proven
software engineering principles that lead to diagrams
that are easier to understand and work with. These
conventions exist as a collection of simple, concise
guidelines that if applied consistently, represent an
important first step in increasing your productivity as
a modeler. This book is oriented towards
intermediate to advanced UML modelers, although there
are numerous examples throughout the book it would not
be a good way to learn the UML (instead, consider
The Object Primer). The book is a brief 188
pages long and is conveniently pocket-sized so it's easy
to carry around. |
I actively work with clients around the world to
improve their information technology (IT) practices as
both a mentor/coach and trainer. A full
description of what I do, and how to contact me, can be
found here.
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