application blueprinting planning, documentation and design neil ross ~ neil@codesweeper.com

Application Blueprinting

Planning, Documentation and Design

Neil Ross ~ neil@codesweeper.com

About Me

• Developing Web Sites and Apps since ’95• Worked for Allaire as CF Instructor and

ConsultantBayer, Lockheed, US Gov, State Govs

• Articles in CFDJ, ‘Inside ColdFusion MX’• Speaker at CF Dev Conf 2000, CFEurope

2003, CFUN03/04• Freelance application design and devel-opment

as Codesweeper• CFDJ Award Winner for PhotoFolio app

Overview• Application Scope and Design• Application Architecture• Detailed Design• Adalon 2.6

• Components• Processes• Functions• ODBC• Documentation• Code Generation

• Close

Application Scope and Design

• Initial customer interviews and requirements gathering

• Understanding the requirements

• Estimation of project scope and resources

• Initial GUI prototyping

• Customer sign off

About Architecture

• Every application has one, whether planned or unplanned

• Architectural perspectivesBusinessDataTechnicalApplication

Application Architecture is…

• The general overview of site components and screens

• A view of major application concepts and modules

• Not a detailed account of each element of the finished product

• A high-level application development and planning guide

High-level Application Architecture

• General overview of screens and process logic paths

Moving Toward Detailed Design

• Understand the application architecture

• Work with colleagues in other disciplines to pull together the business, data and technology requirements

• Dive deeper into the initial high-level diagram and start to look at processes

Detailed Design

• Is the in-depth, nitty-gritty and ground zero view of the application, it’s processes and individual elements

To Create a Detailed Design

• Understand all architectural perspectivesIdentify all business level processes and rulesIdentify all system functional and technical

requirementsIdentify data definitions, structure and rulesIdentify technical items

(Hardware, Software, RDBMS, Language…)

Adalon 2.6

• E-process design tool from Synthis(www.synthis.com)

• Easily create information-rich process diagrams

• Capture initial requirements

• Build complex application process flows

• Import data elements and define rules

Adalon Terminology

• CFMX – Skin and Architectural ViewScreen – What is rendered in the browserComponents – Everything is CFC basedFunctions – Processes that render screensIncludes – Display, Action and Query

• Diagrams – Visual representations of application process logic and navigation

Adalon in Action

• I should be showing you Adalon, not this slide!

And now, on to the conclusion…

In Closing

• I’m NEIL ROSS!!!

• Understanding architecture helps you to understand the bigger picture in software development

• Adalon is a great tool

• Questions or comments to: neil@codesweeper.com