Company Logo

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT NAME
(Phase #)

EXTERNAL DESIGN DOCUMENT

Prepared by:
Author Name
Date created Day / Month / Year
Version X.X
PROJECT EXTERNAL DESIGN ACCEPTANCE

Project Name:

Project Sponsor:

Project Manager:

APPROVAL

The following indicates our approval of the Project External Design Document. We agree that the
document outlines the design changes within Systems Development to meet the requirements for Project
Name as identified by the Functional Areas represented on the project.

Manager(s) Review:

(Name / Development Manager) (Date)

(Name / Project Manager) (Date)

Project Representative(s) Approval: On behalf of the business

(Name / Role) (Date)

(Name / Role) (Date)

(Name / Role) (Date)

(Name / Role.) (Date)

(Name / Role.) (Date)

Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

REVISION LOG

Version Update Date Updated By Description of change Revised Section

0.1 Draft versions only

0.2
0.3
0.4
1.0 After approvals
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4

54027099.doc Page 3
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................5
1.1 DOCUMENT OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................5
1.2 PROJECT OVERVIEW:......................................................................................................................5
1.3 PROJECT IMPACT:............................................................................................................................5
2 DESIGN SUMMARY:........................................................................................................................6
2.1 SUMMARY OF CHANGES.................................................................................................................6
2.2 ASSUMPTIONS.................................................................................................................................6
2.3 RISK AND CONTINGENCIES.............................................................................................................6
3 SYSTEM PROCESS FLOW:............................................................................................................7
3.1 SYSTEM PROCESS FLOW ( DIAGRAM )............................................................................................7
4 TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE:...................................................................................................8
4.1 ARCHITECTURE VIEW.....................................................................................................................8
5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS............................................................................................................9
5.1 ONLINE SCREENS............................................................................................................................9
5.1.1 Screen Name............................................................................................................................9
5.1.1.1 Description / Requirements...............................................................................................9
5.1.1.2 Screen Design...................................................................................................................9
5.1.1.3 Screen Edits.......................................................................................................................9
5.2 REPORTS.........................................................................................................................................9
5.2.1 Report Name............................................................................................................................9
5.2.1.1 Description / Requirements...............................................................................................9
5.2.1.2 Report Layout...................................................................................................................9
5.3 INTERFACES....................................................................................................................................9
5.3.1 Interface Name.........................................................................................................................9
5.3.1.1 Description / Requirements...............................................................................................9
5.4 BATCH PROCESSES..........................................................................................................................9
5.4.1 Process Name...........................................................................................................................9
5.4.1.1 Description / Requirements...............................................................................................9
6 CONVERSION:................................................................................................................................10
6.1 OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................................................10
6.2 APPROACH....................................................................................................................................10
6.3 SCHEDULE.....................................................................................................................................10
7 DATA REQUIREMENTS...............................................................................................................11
7.1 STATIC DATA................................................................................................................................11
8 GLOSSARY OF TERMS:................................................................................................................12

54027099.doc Page 3
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

8.1 PROJECT TERMS............................................................................................................................12

9 Appendix A:........................................................................................................................................13

54027099.doc Page 4
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

1 INTRODUCTION
This section provides an overview if this document, the business background for the project and any
significant impacts that the project will have on the user community.

1.1 Document Objectives

The objective of the External Design Document is to outline the systems design for the project. This
document will be signed off by user representatives and be used by the systems analysts and application
architects to design the system(s). This document will:

 Provide introductory and overview material for the entire project

 Define, in more detail, what is in and out of scope for Systems Development for the project, as
per the Project Charter
 Detail the user interfaces (screens, web pages, reports etc) that will be delivered and which
support the business requirements
 Details system interface requirements for all impacted systems

An External Design Document does not provide detailed system functional specifications for the
programmer, rather an Internal Design document will be developed for use by the development team to
build the required computer code.

The intended audience is:

 Business team members representing the major operational areas of Company name who need
to approve the external design.
 Representative of impacted systems who need to develop detailed internal design
specifications from this external design.
 Other interested Company name management.

1.2 Project Overview:

The project overview should provide a description of the project and the business requirements that will
be addressed. Information can be cut and pasted from the Project Charter to provide the business
background and context for the design.

1.3 Project Impact:

Identify here any specific user demographics, which must be taken into account for the design of the
system. This could include identifying the various user groups that will be impacted by this project;
where they are located, how many people will use the system, etc.

54027099.doc Page 5
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

2 DESIGN SUMMARY:
This section will provide a summary of the system design for this project.

2.1 Summary of Changes

This section provides a summary of the changes that this project will implement.

This should be a numbered list, briefly describing each of the functional components that are to be built.

2.2 Assumptions

In this section, list the assumptions being made in the External Design. This should be a numbered list,
and be started by copying the assumptions from the Project Charter into this section. It is important to
re-state the assumptions from the previous document to confirm that they still hold, and are constraints
under which the project is functioning. Also, all new assumptions that are made during this phase of the
project should be included in this list.

2.3 Risk and Contingencies

List the risks and contingencies that apply to the External Design. This should be a numbered list, and
will include the risks and contingencies from the Project Charter that are still applicable, plus any new
risks that have been identified during the External Design phase.

54027099.doc Page 6
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

3 SYSTEM PROCESS FLOW:

The System Process Flow identifies all of the systems and interfaces that are required to support the
business requirements. The diagram will illustrate the user interfaces to the systems, interfaces between
systems, the data flows, and the major inputs and outputs.

3.1 System Process Flow ( diagram )

54027099.doc Page 7
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

4 TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE:

4.1 Architecture View

Describe new Technologies to be implemented and new Architectural features of the systems. If there
are no new features to be introduced, this section should still be included with a statement to that effect.
This may include a position statement from the Solution Architecture Team.

54027099.doc Page 8
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

This section of the document should detail all of the User Interfaces that will be delivered within
Systems Development by this project. This includes all applications supported by Systems
Development.

5.1 Online Screens

5.1.1 Screen Name

5.1.1.1 Description / Requirements

5.1.1.2 Screen Design

5.1.1.3 Screen Edits

5.2 Reports

5.2.1 Report Name

5.2.1.1 Description / Requirements

5.2.1.2 Report Layout

5.3 Interfaces

5.3.1 Interface Name

5.3.1.1 Description / Requirements

5.4 Batch Processes

5.4.1 Process Name

5.4.1.1 Description / Requirements

54027099.doc Page 9
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

6 CONVERSION:

Describe the business conversion requirements for this project. This can include both automated and
manual conversions. Remove section 6 is there are no conversion requirements for this project.

6.1 Objectives

6.2 Approach

6.3 Schedule

54027099.doc Page 10
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

7 DATA REQUIREMENTS

7.1 Static Data

This section will identify any new static data that will need to be created. This will feed the design of
the script(s) that will be created to enter the data.

54027099.doc Page 11
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

8 GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

8.1 Project Terms

Include in this section a Glossary of all Terms that are applicable for this project.

54027099.doc Page 12
Systems Development External Design Document 12/8/2021
Date

9 APPENDIX A:

Appendix sections can be included to provide reference material where required.

External Design Page 13