OpenOffice.org Software Specifications

Welcome to the web based collaboration area of the OpenOffice.org Specification Project.

Software specifications are an essential part of the OpenOffice.org development process. Changes to OpenOffice.org be it adding new feature or enhancing existing ones will be done based on written software specifications. This is absolutely neccessary as there are always multiple persons or groups involved in a change to OpeOffice.org. Specifically software specifications serve as working base for:

Development (DEV)
DEV implements features based on the technical information covered in software specifications.

User Experience (UX)
UX uses software specifications to define the user interface (UI) and its interaction model.

Quality Assurance (QA)
QA derives test case specifications based on software specifications. They test implemented features against the software specifications.

Documentation (DOCU)
DOCU writes the end-user documentation based on software specifications.

There is a Software Specification Template which greatly simplifies the process of writing software specifications and which helps you to avoid the common errors usually leading to rework, regressions and delays.

I Want to Change Something in OpenOffice.org - Do I Have to Write a Software Specification?

In general the answer is YES. This applies to:

• Features
• Enhancements
• Defects requiring the following type of changes:
  • Behavioral changes of the UI (e.g. changing a dialog from modal to modeless)
  • Visual changes of the UI (e.g. changing the icon size, the splash screen, the about box)
  • Configuration changes (e.g. changing application defaults such as Spellchecking ON/OFF)
• Features, enhancements, defects which are already covered by an existing software specification.
  • Software specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.x can be found on the UI Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.x site

• • Older software specifications can be found in the section UI Specifications for OpenOffice.org 1.1.x

A software specification needs NOT to be written if:

You do the following kind of changes:

• Fixing a typo in the UI.
• Rearranging UI controls without changing functionality.
• The changes are not going to be integrated into the OpenOffice.org master.
  • The change is an Extension which is distributed separately to OpenOffice.org

If you are in doubt, whether you need a software specification or not ask the responsible project lead of the application or area you are intending to change (see table below).

Before Writing a Software Specification -- What Else Do I have to Do?

You should be able to answer each of the following questions marked with the letter Q with YES:

Q1 [Feature/Enhancement]:
Does an unambiguously clear feature or enhancement request exists?

Q2 [Concept]:
For changes requiring modifications in more than one application: Is there a product concept available, which is understandable to the intended readership?

Q3 [Project-Resources]:
Do you have a project team? An OpenOffice.org feature is always being devoloped by an Implementation Team (i-Team). An i-Team consists at least of two distinct persons:

• A developer (required)
• A QA representative (required)
  Ask for a QA representative in the dev@qa.openoffice.org mailing list.
• An User Experience member (required only if the feature or bug fix affects the user interface or the behavior of the application)

Q4 [i-Team Agreement]:
Do all i-Team members agree on Q1 - Q3?

What happens if I can't answer all questions mentioned above, with Yes?
The consequence could be that your valuable work won't be integrated into OpenOffice.org.

Writing a Software Specification - How to Start?

OpenOffice.org software specifications will be written based on the official OpenOffice.org Software Specification Template. This template assists you in the process of creating your software specification quickly and helps you to avoid common errors and pitfalls.

The following iterative process has been proven most suiteable when developing software specifications for OpenOffice.org:

• Plan
  
  • I-Team Kickoff
  • Detailed feature / sub-feature planning
  • First design sessions

• Do
  
  • Create prototypes/first implementation
  • Write software specification according to the three essential rules for OpenOffice.org software specifications

  R1:Complete

  R2:Clear

  R3:Simple

• Review
  
  • i-Team reviews the software specification with regards to the three essential rules for OpenOffice.org software specifications mentioned above

• Improve
  
  • Remove defects in your software specification
  • Remove defects in your implementation

More details on the process can be found here

Note: the OpenOffice.org Software Specification Template requires OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 or newer, make sure that the OpenOffice.org proxy settings are configured correctly. The proxy settings can be changed under Tools/Options/Internet/Proxy.

Exiting the Software Specification Process

If the i-Team can agree on the following items

• The software specification reflects the implementation in the child workspace (CWS) and has been set to standard status
• Also all required documents (i.e. test case specification) exist, are available, and have standard status
• CWS Policies have been fulfilled
• Issue Handling rules have been fulfilled
• All additional automated an manual tests have been run successfully and the results have been logged

the CWS can be set to Approved by QA and the Release Engineering will integrate the CWS which makes the new implementation available in the MASTER workspace (MWS).

Recommendation: To be sure that the transfer from CWS to MWS was also successfull it makes sense that the i-Team and not only the QA mmember (see: Issue Handling QA) compares the implementation with the software specification.

Retro-fitting Patches with Specifications

Other teams outside Sun cannot, or will not follow this formal process in order. In many cases this will yield a working piece of code, that requires UI, i18n etc. review before they can be accepted. However, in this case it is frequently difficult to get anyone to show interest in the spec. Therefore - if a suitable specification is written for a given feature, and all feedback is incorporated, and after a period of 2 weeks there is no further reply / feedback / review - it will be deemed that the specification is uncontroversial, whether or not it has a perfectly formed and populated iTeam.

Uncontroversial specifications are by definition not problematic and are hence automatically approved.

Feedback and comments

Feedback or comments are welcome please feel free to submit them to "dev at specs dot openoffice dot org"