HLSD - template document
I have been asked to produce a High Level Solution Design document on the following below for the team to use. Could someone please guide me on what and what are expected in each and how to go about it as am still new in the filed. less than a year old. An samples, links will be highly appreciated • ETL Requirements & Solution with reference to the mapping document and sign off to ensure the mapping document has been updated. • Report output sign off – Another section towards the end of the document to record how the final output looks with sign off section to be completed by a BA. • System Testing Plan – Notes on what will be tested as part of the solution design (ETL routines, data transfers, stored procs, reports) which may incorporate the testing of business rules below. • Business Rules Sign Off – This should cover any basic system testing that we would perform before passing to a BA who would then test and give final testing sign off. • deployment plan
Best Answer
That's a pretty major set of requirements you've been tasked with in your first year on the job. I don't have a good set of links for suggestions on this. I'd suggest checking out Simple-Talk to see what's there. [Here's a list of articles][1] on documenting ETL. There may be a couple there that are useful. Here's one on [testing documentation][2]. It looks pretty sparse. There are tons and tons of documents on [deployment methodologies and documentation][3] over there, including several that I've written.
The best way to think about documentation is that you need to write down enough information so everyone on the team knows what they need to do. But, don't write so much down that you're actually doing peoples jobs for them. That's serious over-documentation. The best thing you can do, spit out multiple drafts. Never let anything be finished and tell everyone that. Also, put the documents in a central location that can be accessed by the team. When someone says, "Hey, your document doesn't say anything about X" you can respond "Wow, you're right. Can you do a first draft on that since you're the expert?" Then, the processes start to document themselves.
Good luck.
[1]: https://www.red-gate.com/Search/?t=simpletalk&s=document+etl [2]: https://www.simple-talk.com/search/default.aspx?search=document+testing&x=0&y=0 [3]: https://www.simple-talk.com/search/default.aspx?search=document+deployment&x=0&y=0
