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Summary

Present the “what to do”, “why”, and “how”

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Schema

* Title
* Applies To
* What to Do
* Why
* When
* How
* Problem Example
* Solution Example
* Related Items

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Test Cases

Title
* Does the title clearly state the action to take?
* Does the title start with an action word (eg. Do something, Avoid something)?

Applies To
*Do you list technology and version? (e.g. ASP.NET 2.0)

What to Do
* Do you state the action to take?
* Do you avoid stating more than the action to take?

Why
*Do you provide enough information for the user to make a decision?
*Do you state the negative consequences of not following this guideline?


When
* Do you state when the guideline is applicable?
* Do you state when not to use this guideline?


How
* Do you state enough information to take action?
* Do you provide explicit steps that are repeatable?


Problem Example
*Do you show a real world example of the problem from experience?
*If there are variations of the problem, do you show the most common?
*If this is an implementation guideline, do you show code?

Solution Example
*Does the example show the resulting solution if the problem example is fixed?
*If this is a design guideline is the example illustrated with images and text?
*If this is an implementation guideline is the example in code?

Additional Resources
*Are the links from trusted sites?
*Are the links correct in context of the guideline?

Related Items
*Are the correct items linked in the context of the guideline?


Additional Tests to Consider When Writing a Guideline
*Does the title clearly state the action to take?
*Does the title start with an action word (eg. Do something, Avoid something)?
*If the item is a MUST, meaning it is prevelant and high impact, is Priority = p1?
*If the item is a SHOULD, meaning it has less impact or is only applicable in narrower circumstances, is Priority = p2?
*If the item is a COULD, meaning it is nice to know about but isn't highly prevelant or impactful, is Priority = p3?
*If this item will have cascading impact on application design, is Type = Design?
*If this item should be followed just before deployment, is concerned with configuration details or runtime behavior, is Type = Deployment?
*If this item is still in progress or not fully reviewed, is Status = Beta?

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Example

* Guideline Template Example

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Template

* Guideline Template

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Links

* Guideline Template
* Guideline Template Example
* Guideline Test Cases

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