Connection of the Description Method to the Subject of Interest, Project Roles, and the System
In previous sections, it was mentioned that the subject of interest is connected to the system. A system can be characterized by various subjects of interest. Subjects of interest are linked to project roles—that is, people in these roles are interested in certain characteristics of the system.
The team determines which interests of the project roles[1] will be addressed during the creation of the system. Accordingly, this determines which work artifacts (documentation) will be needed. Work artifacts are physical carriers that contain a description of the system, addressing a specific subject of interest.
To create documentation, one must possess a certain practice[2] or method of description. Using this method of description, a system description is created on a physical medium, addressing the subject of interest regarding the system.
For example, a racer's subject of interest is the speed of the race car. This can also be phrased differently: the external project role "racer" has the subject of interest "speed" in relation to the system "race car." The developers decided to address the racer's interests—that is, the team determined that the interests of this project role should be addressed. This means that work will continue with this subject of interest, during which documentation (a computer model) will be created.
Next, the developers select a method of description in order to create the system description. They choose one of the description methods that allows them to build a computer model for calculating the car's speed[3]. This computer model is a work artifact that contains a description of the car system with respect to the subject of interest: speed.
By the way, this model may take into account not only this particular subject of interest, but others as well. The total number of work artifacts (documentation) describing the system is proportional to the number of subjects of interest, and the number of subjects of interest is proportional to the number of project roles that have been selected to be addressed[4].
From all the project roles considered, the subjects of interest and/or preferences to be addressed are selected. It is impossible to satisfy all interests, as there may not be enough resources (funds and time). On the other hand, the team must avoid making a fatal mistake. A fatal mistake could be failing to consider a particular interest, which may later result in significant and irreparable costs. ↩︎
As you may recall, a project role creates a work artifact by following a practice. ↩︎
Here, both the theoretical aspect of the calculations and the computer-based aspect of how these calculations can be performed are important. ↩︎
As you may recall, all project roles are considered, but the team may decide that only selected ones will be addressed. For each of these, a work artifact is created to address the project role. The diagram shows only an external project role, but the same applies to internal project roles as well. ↩︎