I'm back, so now it's time to get started on the Specification Exchange project. First step will involve setting up the mailing list, which will happen this week. I'll also post over the upcoming weekend the draft structure for the data dictionary.

This project covers the specification formats for requirements and design documentation of database-oriented applications. Database applications have a structural component, which defines how the persistent data for the application is structured, and a functional component, which defines the interfaces and business rules to be applied during application usage.

The first phase of this project will focus on the design stage structural component, which covers the data dictionary and access control definitions. I've been thinking on this a bit and have come up with a series of issues that apply to this topic. Rather than take up a bunch of blog articles, I'll put together an issues spreadsheet and post it on the project web page.

-Z-