Evolution of the SDD Core

Besides the user experience of SDD, the actual language and tools at the core of SDD are also meant to evolve.

Evolution of the Language

The current v0.1 of the language aims for a useful set of nodes and edges, but it is just a start. Practical use will show what works and what doesn't.

Known Language Opportunities:

• Templates: re-usable, instantiatable sections of SDD, to effectively use design patterns
• User Stories / Story Mapping: a powerful approach to product definition, worth representing.
• Personas: a commonly used solution to diiferentiate solutions for different types of users, worth representing.
• External linking: providing node-accurate link targets for external applications to link to SDD content, and providing internal representation of links to specific content items in other applications. This is a core foundation for bringing SDD value to existing tools and processes.
• Branching & versioning: allowing SDDs to track changes and represent alternative versions of branches. This is important for work that evolves over time and relies of exploration.

Evolution of SDD Diagrams

The current set of diagrams aims to be practical and simple.

Any specialist in design diagrams is likely to find shortcomings in the offering. Design diagrams, especially high-level ones, often carry a lot of detail and meaning, for good reasons. Missing diagrams can be added, and diagrams can evolve.

Known Diagram Opportunities:

• A level of manual layout control
• Flexible styling
• Sections: creating diagrams for part of a graph, instead of the entire graph
• Data visualization: showing information from external sources in the context of diagrams
• New "vertical" diagram types:
  • Providing "rationale" traceability to low-level details by showing connected higher-level content
  • Providing "execution" traceability to high-level elements by showing connected lower-level content