Concept paper Tips / Howto

Topics to consider including in your concept paper:

• Purpose
  
  • The Problem (AKA Starting Position)
    
    • Why is this concept being considered? What is the issue that someone is having?
  • Goals
    
    • Feature will be a success if it meets these goals
  • Use Cases (AKA User Stories)
    
    • List concrete ways in which this feature will be used.
  • Tests
• Proposal
  
  • Concept (AKA Design)
    
    • What is the overall approach to solve the problem. First summarize the high level overview in a few lines.
  • Reasoning (AKA Rationale)
    
    • Pros and Cons
    • Consequences of this approach
  • Implementation
    
    • Concrete details.
    • Class diagrams or interfaces
    • Requirements
    • Thoughts
    • Open Questions
• Etcetera
  
  • Possible improvements
  • Discarded proposals (and why)
  • Discussion
  • References