Software design description

IEEE 1016-2009, titled IEEE Standard for Information Technology—Systems Design—Software Design Descriptions,^[1] is an IEEE standard that specifies "the required information content and organization" for a software design description (SDD). [IEEE 1016, Abstract]. IEEE 1016 does not specify the medium of an SDD; it is "applicable to automated databases and design description languages but can be used for paper documents and other means of descriptions." [IEEE 1016, Abstract]

The 2009 edition was a major revision to IEEE 1016-1998, elevating it from recommended practice to full standard. This revision was modeled after IEEE Std 1471-2000, Recommended Practice for Architectural Description of Software-intensive Systems, extending the concepts of view, viewpoint, stakeholder, and concern from architecture description to support documentation of high-level and detailed design and construction of software. [IEEE 1016, Introduction]

Following the IEEE 1016 conceptual model, an SDD is organized into one or more design views. Each design view follows the conventions of its design viewpoint. IEEE 1016 defines the following design viewpoints for use [IEEE 1016, Clause 5]:

Context viewpoint
Composition viewpoint
Logical viewpoint
Dependency viewpoint
Information viewpoint
Patterns use viewpoint
Interface viewpoint
Structure viewpoint
Interaction viewpoint
State dynamics viewpoint
Algorithm viewpoint
Resource viewpoint

In addition, users of the standard are not limited to these viewpoints but may define their own. [IEEE 1016, sub-clause 4.5]

Annex C of the standard provides the following (optional) template outline for SDDs:

Frontispiece
- Date of issue and status
- Issuing organization
- Authorship
- Change history
Introduction
- Purpose
- Scope
- Context
- Summary
References
Glossary
Body
- Identified stakeholders and design concerns
- Design viewpoint 1
- Design view 1
  ...
- Design viewpoint n
- Design view n
- Design rationale

References

^ "IEEE Standard for Information Technology — Systems Design — Software Design Descriptions". IEEE. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2014-07-06.

External links

IEEE 1016 website
1016-1987 — IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Design Descriptions. 1987. doi:10.1109/IEEESTD.1987.122643. ISBN 0-7381-0402-7.
1016-1998 — IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Design Descriptions. 1998. doi:10.1109/IEEESTD.1998.88828. ISBN 0-7381-1455-3.
Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1109/IEEESTD.2009.5167255, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1109/IEEESTD.2009.5167255 instead.

[IEEE1016-1] "IEEE Standard for Information Technology — Systems Design — Software Design Descriptions". IEEE. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2014-07-06.

[1]