Project Architecture

The manifesto is deliberately non-prescriptive. Teams still ask for a starting shape, so this page gives one: a portal or wiki structure that follows a project from idea to operation. Treat it as scaffolding. Keep the parts that earn their place and drop the rest.

Every heading below is a page or folder in the project's own documentation. The order is the order the work happens in.

The stages🔗

• Welcome introduces the project and gives visitors a map of everything else.
• Solution Guide describes the solution as a whole, with a Solution Exception Guide for anything that deviates from the standard approach.
• Initiate is where the project starts. An Idea Brief states the idea and its objectives. EPICs set the high-level goals and break down into Features.
• Design captures business processes, user stories, technical designs, decision records and the solution design (including reporting and non-functionals), plus the test strategy and the environments needed.
• Build and Test are where the solution is made and proven. Each stage records its own environments, and Test also holds plans and reports.
• Release prepares the solution for use: quality plan and road map, work instructions, operational handover, the releases themselves (pre-release, 1.0) and a go-live readiness checklist.
• Governance covers how the project is run: meetings, risks, acceptance criteria, definition of done, ways of working, submissions, reports, retrospectives, planning, standards, principles and patterns, reviews, and who is responsible for keeping records.
• Resources, Glossary, Guides and Feedback and Questions hold the supporting material: templates and tools, definitions of terms, onboarding guides, and a place for visitors to ask questions.

Outline🔗

• Welcome Page: the first page visitors see, with an overview of the project and navigation to every other section.
• Solution Guide: a detailed overview of the solution and its components, including known exceptions and limitations.
  • Solution Exception Guide
• Initiate: the early stages, from idea brief to EPICs and features.
  • Idea Brief
  • EPICs
    • Features
      • Feature 1, 2, 3…
• Design: business processes, user stories, technical designs, decision records and the overall solution design, with sub-sections for reporting, non-functionals, test strategy and environments.
  • Business Processes
  • User Stories
  • Technical Designs
  • Decision Records¹
  • Solution Design
    • Reporting
    • Non-Functionals
  • Test Strategy
  • Environments
• Build: setup and configuration of the build environments.
  • Environments
• Test: test plans, reports and environments.
  • Plans
  • Reports
  • Environments
• Release: release plans, quality plans, road maps, work instructions, operational handover and go-live readiness.
  • Plans
    • Quality Plan
    • Road Map
  • Work Instructions
  • Operational Handover
  • Releases
    • Pre-release
    • 1.0
  • Go-Live Readiness
    • Checklists
• Governance: how the project is managed.
  • Meetings
  • Risks
  • Acceptance Criteria
  • Definition of Done
  • Ways of Working
  • Submissions
  • Reports
  • Retrospectives
  • Planning
  • Standards
  • Principles and Patterns
  • Reviews
  • Records Keeping Responsibility
    • Requirements
    • Information Exchange
    • Auditing of Data Access
• Resources: templates, tools and other relevant material.
• Glossary: definitions of the technical terms and jargon used throughout the project.
• Guides: guides and tutorials, starting with onboarding.
• Feedback and Questions: a place for visitors to give feedback or ask questions.

Versioning🔗

Releases follow Semantic Versioning 2.0.0:²

• MAJOR for breaking changes
• MINOR for added functionality that stays backwards-compatible
• PATCH for backwards-compatible bug fixes

Example: 1.2.3-prerelease+build.

Related reading🔗

• Push Manifesto: Journey Over Destination explains the philosophy this structure serves.
• Git Standards covers repository naming and branching for the same projects.
• Waypoints, Not Milestones on how a Push team measures progress.