How-to guides
ReferenceInformative
How-to guides
Goal-oriented procedures for designing a system, producing its artefacts and turning accepted rules into executable work.
Open a how-to guide when you are doing the work. Each guide leads to an outcome and links to the standards or reference material that owns the rule.
Design the system
| Goal | Guide | Finished when |
|---|---|---|
| Run the complete design sequence | Follow the design method | Every step has its named output and the domain gate is accepted |
| Establish the shared frontend boundary | Set up the UI system | Tokens, copied primitives, variants and feature imports have one enforced home |
| Frame an authenticated application | Build an application shell | Every page renders through one shell, and switching navigation touches no page |
| Name and wire the navigation | Name and wire navigation | Destinations are declared once, labelled with nouns, and the trail is derived from them |
| Install the project documentation set | Document a project | Product, module and delivery truths each have one linked owner |
| Capture what the client said | Write a brief | Learned facts are separated from assumptions and decisions |
| Discover the actors' failure modes | Interview and challenge actors | Findings are recorded with provenance |
| Establish the entities and use cases | Model a domain | The GraphQL SDL passes the six checks and is approved |
| Separate configuration from decisions | Resolve open questions | Only model, environment and service decisions remain |
| State one module's normative product rules | Write a module reference | The five sections are complete and every requirement has a stable identifier and observable result |
| Commit an expensive structural choice | Record a decision | Drivers, options, decision and consequences are explicit |
Plan executable work
| Goal | Guide | Finished when |
|---|---|---|
| Map accepted rules to delivery | Plan delivery | Stories cite requirements and every epic states its delivery gate |
| Produce work someone can start | Derive executable tasks | Every task is decidable, observable and belongs to one story |
Review and improve
| Goal | Guide |
|---|---|
| Repair hierarchy, density and rhythm | Improve layout and spacing |
| Review interaction quality and motion | Review motion and polish |
| Repair a dense or stacked table | Registers |
| Fix a screen that says nothing when empty | Empty states |
| Find rigid or bespoke decisions | Review an existing design |
| Find exploitable control gaps in a Java service | Audit a Java backend |