Project Constraints limit the options of a project.
Description
Project constraints limit the options of a project. It is important to note them for further reference. Usually these constraints cannot be changed or cannot be changed easily. Everyone on the team should have quick access to this fundamental information.
Properties
The document type project constraint provides the following properties:
Constraint Type
Define the type of the constraint for grouping and selecting constraints.
- technical
- The constraint is based on technical issues.
- business
- The constraint is based on business issues.
- legal
- The constraint is based on legal issues.
- other
- The constraint is based on issues not related to technical, business, or legal issues.
Sections
Description
Describe the constraint that defines fundamental and unmodifiable facts demanded by the customer.
This includes technical constraints (software version, etc.), business constraints (business rules, etc.) and legal constraints (law, etc.). In opposition to requirements, project constraints do not change - and if they actually change, will demand a huge amount of work and may imply that a new product has to be started.
Subordinate Constraints
You may subdivide a constraint and describe each part individually.
Justification
Provide information about the reason or intent of the constraint. To know what is meant may make it easier to follow the demanded constraint.
Impact
Describe the concrete impact on the project. What has to be done to meet the constraint.
Consequences
Describe the consequences if the project fails to meet this constraint.
This description is only relevant if the consequence is different to "the project fails".
Notes
These are internal notes that are usually not exported and only visible to team members with write access.
But this is not a safe place to store sensible information. It is just a convenience for the reader to not be bothered with notes stored here for the authors for later use. The security level is about suppressing the representation by a CSS style. Therefore consider this as a convenience for the reader, not as a security tool.
References
For a document the references section contains pointers to resources that prove the statements of the document.
Often these proofs are not easily distinguishable from further information. In this case you may want to skip the reference section in favour for the resource list.
Resources
The resources section provides references to further information to the topic of the document.
This may be information on the internet provided by the resource or information in the team's information systems. Anything the reader of the resource might want to know, may be listed here.
