Artifact: Asset Specification
A formal description of the asset, which is used for decision-making and as input for asset production.
Domains: Asset-Based Development
Work Product Kinds: Specification
Relationships
Description
Main Description

The asset specification describes the asset being proposed. The specification should provide technical justification for the asset. Not all assets will require an asset specification. In general assets which will require or it is expected to require a meaningful investment for the organization, or of sufficient complexity or reuse scope as to require multiple teams will benefit from creating an asset specification. The asset specification may go through several iterations as greater understanding of the problem and the solution are gathered from stakeholders.

The need for this asset has generally been established, and sometimes sponsorship and support for the asset has been secured. This specification can be used by the support teams to understand the asset. It also certainly can and should be used by the asset owner or producer to create and update the asset.

This specification is largely intended for technical teams to use, although it can be shared with sponsors and technical management as part of making decisions to fund and staff the effort to build, maintain, and support the asset. The specification should include the following:

Identify items such as the following:

  • Asset name.
  • The problem the asset is expected to solve.
  • Description of the solution.
  • Expected context(s).
  • Expected artifacts in the asset.
  • Asset relationships and dependencies.
  • Possible categorization/classification:
    • Business.
    • Technical.
    • Organizational.
  • Expected asset consumer skills.
  • How the expected asset consumer will use the asset.
  • Asset owner and maintainer - sponsor and funding.
  • Estimated asset development effort.
  • Estimated asset consumer benefits.
Illustrations
Key Considerations

The need for this asset has generally been established, and sometimes sponsorship and support for the asset has been secured. This specification can be used by the support teams to understand the asset, it certainly can and should be used by the asset owner/producer to create and update the asset.

Tailoring
Representation OptionsThe degree of formality for asset specification is affected by the kinds of assets which will be produced and their complexity. Certainly simple assets which contains a presentation or document only will likely have a different level of specification compared to a service asset which includes models, test data, a service interface and implementation.
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