Design Review Checklist - High level Design (Architecture Design)

Project Code
Version of the work product
Reviewer(s)
Review date
Work product' size
Effort spent on review (man-hour)

Question Assessment Note Priority Severity

CONTENT
Is the system context clearly described ?
Does it include the system context diagram and sufficiently & clearly describe
following information:
Users & Roles: List of users & roles with descriptions and contexts in which each
user/role interacts with the system. Each context must cover time (when),
frequency & volumes of transactions if any.
Channels: Description of channel, types of roles & user use it, network and
bandwidth, Access protocol (to send and receive)
External system: Overview description, access protocol, data format supported, or
expected, specific compliance requirements need to be followed, nonfunctional
specifications that may influence the architecture of the design.

Information flow: Describe the information flow between system and users, roles,
external systems (categories of information as batch, real-time, semi-real time,
transaction load, data type, data volume and frequency of transaction)

Is the system context for any important sub-system (if necessary) clearly described ?

Is the business clearly described ?

Are main businesses clearly described ?
Are the relationships between businesses clearly described ? (Include the role of
each business in those relationships ?
System Decomposition : Is the system well decomposed ?
Is the architecture cleanly decomposed the top-level elements of the system?
Are component boundaries well defined, including functionalities and interfaces?
Is the architecture appropriately layered?
Are the major subsystems/components described ? (which includes their overall
roles, responsibilities to other subsystems/components)?
Have all shared data and resource between components been described?
Has the dataflow among all components been described ?
Does the design limit component connections and interaction ?

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Are the main components further decomposed to sufficient detail level ?

Is the data design clearly described ?
Are all major data structures described and justified ?
If appropriate, are major data structures hidden by an abstraction layers ?
Is the conceptual view for all composite data elements and objects documented ?

Is the dynamic aspect of the system being clearly represented ?

Are processes/threads created when system operates identified and clearly
represented ?
Is the problem domain model sufficient to capture all states and behavior?
Are all significant system meta-states and events captured ?
Are all major algorithms described and justified ?
Is a strategy described and justified for:
I/O strategy ?
Error-handling strategy, handling special states? (e.g. abnormal termination,
error recovery, losing power), handling failure of the system?
(e.g. process termination, system recovery)
Memory management: Does it included memory use estimates?
Share resource management: Are the modules that use the shared resources
indicated?
Handling strings: Is localization or internationalization an issue?
Is the Physical or Deployment aspect being clearly represented ?
Is the physical network configuration on which the software deployed and run
described and justified ? includes
- physical nodes (computers, CPU)
- physical connections(bus, LAN, point-to-point, and so on)
Is the distribution of components on hardwares clearly specified ?
Are other deployment models (if any) being clearly described ?
Does the suggested hardware configuration satisfy the non-functional requirement
(for example: performance and availability)?
Are backup/restore strategy described and justified?
Is non-functionalities clearly specified ?
Is non-functionality clearly described with measurable data ?
Are there analysis to prove that the system design satisfies those non-
functionalities ?
Are following environments (includes Hardware, Software, version of software, usage
purposes) clearly described?
Development environment
Test environment
UAT environment
Production environment

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Are the proposed programming languages and technologies appropriate?

Are there policies for the detailed design described clearly ?
General evaluation
Does the architecture take into account technology or other constraints that cannot
be avoided? i.e., can the architecture be implemented for the target environment?

Is the architecture considered in selection process? i.e. has a brief explanation of

advantages and disadvantages of the selected architecture in comparison with others

To the extent possible, is the architecture independent of the technology that will be
used to implement it ?
Is there a sufficient number of views and/or models for all major aspects of design to
be fully understood?
DOCUMENT CONTROL
Verify whether document control procedures have been followed by checking for the
following:
Does the title page contain the document name, version number, release date and
issued date.?

Does the header and footer correctly specify the name, and version of the document?
Does the page – numbering scheme indicate the total number of pages in the
document?
Is the history traceable?
Does it include list of reference documents?
Are all documents checked Spelling and Grammar in MS Word or similar tools?

Is the format (font type, font size, color) consistent through out the whole document ?

<Add more rows if needed>

* Comments

* Suggestion

[ ] - Pass
[ ] - Review again
[ ] - Other

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Design Review Checklist - Low level Design (Detailed Design)
Project Code
Version of the work product
Reviewer(s)
Review date
Work product' size
Effort spent on review (man-hour)

Question Assessment Note Priority Severity

CONTENT
Screen design: Does screen designs (if any) satisfy the requirements specified in
other documents (SRS, Requirement, Architecture Design) ?
Does it describe GUI of the system as follows:
Does it describe/layout position of all items in GUI?
Does it describe processes or actions for GUI?
Does it describe relationship between items in GUI and modules or public
functions?
Are the inputs and outputs for all the interfaces are sufficient and necessary?
Static view:
Does each components specified in Architecture being decomposed to classes and
depicted in a class diagram ?
Does the class diagram view provided to each business ?
Dynamic view: Is there at least a dynamic view (sequence, activity, state, collaboration
diagram) for each business of the system ?
Class design:
Are all classes' general description clearly specified ?
Are classes' main interface/methods all clearly described ?
Are classes' main attributes all clearly described ?
Are there dynamic diagram (sequence, activity diagram) used to describe the
complicated method ?
Are inputs to methods necessary and sufficient to perform the required operation?

Do methods clearly state how the output is derived from input or shared data?
Are error, exception and other abnormal processing and states described in detail?

Are all classes, methods… named follow the coding convention?

Data detail design: Have data elements been described to a sufficiently low level of
detail?

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Data detail design: Have value ranges and other data constraints been specified?

Resources
Does it describe format of external data used in the system?
Has the management and use of shared and stored data been described in detail
and follow the specification described in Requirement or Architecture design ?

General evaluation
Does the design support the appropriate level modularity?
Does the design reflect the actual operating environment? Hardware? Software?

Does the design support the appropriate level of design and code reuse?
Has sufficient detail been included for someone else to develop the code?
DOCUMENT CONTROL
Verify whether document control procedures have been followed by checking for the
following:
Does the title page contain the document name, version number, release date and
issued date.?
Does the header and footer correctly specify the name, and version of the
document?
Does the page – numbering scheme indicate the total number of pages in the
document?
Is the history traceable?
Does it include list of reference documents?

Are all documents checked Spelling and Grammar in MS Word or similar tools?
Is the format (font type, font size, color) consistent through out the whole
document ?

<Add more rows if needed>

* Comments

* Suggestion

[ ] - Pass
[ ] - Review again
[ ] - Other

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