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Software Design Document Template

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What is a Software Design Document?

Software design documents help to ensure the design specs of the software are understood and it's clear to all what is possible and how it can be accomplished.

Why are Software Design Documents Important?

Software design documents are an important way of looping everyone into the process who is involved in product. It i everyone understand what is possible, what is not possible and the system that will be designed.

What You Should Include in Your Software Design Document?

Title

Introduction: Provide an overview of the entire document

System Overview: Provide a general description and functionality of the software system.  

Design Considerations: Describe the issues that need to be addressed before creating a design solution

  • Assumptions and Dependencies: Describe any assumptions that may be wrong or any dependencies on other things.
  • General Constraints: Describe any constraints that could have an impact on the design of the software.
  • Goals and Guidelines: Describe any goals and guidelines for the design of the software.
  • Development Methods: Describe the software design method that will be used.

Architectural Strategies: Describe the strategies that will be used that will affect the system.

System Architecture: This section should provide a high-level overview of how the functionality and responsibilities of the system were partitioned and then assigned to subsystems or components.

Policies and Tactics: Describe any design policies and/or tactics that do not have sweeping architectural implications (meaning they would not significantly affect the overall organization of the system and its high-level structures).

Detailed System Design: Most components described in the System Architecture section will require a more detailed discussion. Other lower-level components and subcomponents may need to be described as well.

Glossary: An ordered list of defined terms and concepts used throughout the document.

Key Benefits of Creating Your Software Design Document on Bit.ai

Bit is an collaborative interactive modern document platform that allows you to incorporate smart content inside of your documents. Businesses from across the globe are using Bit for fast beautiful documents.

Here are some of the man benefits of using Bit:

  1. Collaborate in real-time
  2. Interlink your software design document and other documents.
  3. Create fully responsive documents.
  4. Create software design documents that are only visible to yourself or your colleagues.
  5. Track engagement on shared software design documents with customers, partners, etc.
  6. Embed your software design documents onto any website.

How to Make Your Software Design Document Interactive?

Recommended power links and files you can add to your software design documents:

  • Web links
  • GitHub
  • PDFs, PowerPoint in Google Drive/OneDrive
  • Google Sheets, OneDrive Excel, Airtable
  • YouTube, Vimeo
  • Social Media posts
  • Draw.io & Lucidcharts
  • InVision, Framer, Figma
Rich media embed

Software Design Document Template

Bit documents can also be embedded onto any website! Here's is Bit document that you can interact with and see in it's entirety:
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