Summary

In the competitive world in which complex software sells for $99.95 and companies pay a bounty to any employee finding a new software engineer, planning is an essential activity. The challenge is to balance time spent planning and documenting the plan, with the time available to produce software.

We have shown a series of templates that reduce the time required to complete the planning process. These documents are hierarchical where possible to further reduce the volume of documentation required to do an adequate job. The planning process will be a success if the developers who drive the process see benefit from it. It will be perfunctory at best if the attitude becomes one of "just get it done."