My e-mail to experts at Adobe and Sun (on the OASIS Technical Committee for ebXML), as well as my posting to the docbook-apps listserv:
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/200401/msg00301.html
===================
Fwd: [docbook-apps] DocBook for authoring Technical Requirements, Specifications?
From: William Reilly
To: mxxxx@ adobe.com, dxxxxxxxxxx@ Sun.com
Hello, Matt MacKenzie & Doug Bunting,
I'm very interested in (possibly) using DocBook not to "Doc"ument but to
Specify a system.
Looking for a "SpecBook," or "ReqBook" ;^) essentially.
Or, to learn that DocBook itself might be a good choice...
--- WHY I'M WRITING YOU ------------------
From the DocBook WIKI I learned that:
"OASIS ebXML Message Services TC has decided to use DocBook for version 3.x
of its specification"
http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/WhoUsesDocBook
I then found your names from this OASIS page:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/documents.php?wg_abbrev=ebxml-msg
Looks like V2 Spec. "formatting was based upon the Internet Society's Standard
RFC format, converted to Microsoft Word 2000."
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ebxml-msg/documents/ebMS_v2_0rev_c.pdf
And I found the ebXML DTD and XML used in Oct. 2002:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ebxml-msg/documents/requirements.xml
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ebxml-msg/documents/requirements.dtd
--- MY BASIC QUESTION -----------------
My question would be a wide open one:
- Are you using DocBook to write requirements, or specifications?
- How is that going?
- Have you needed to extend DocBook (to get your "reqDetails" kind of tags,
etc.)?
Any info, comments, or sample files you feel you could share would be most
welcome.
I'm at a not-for-profit educational organization, http://www.cast.org -
creating improved online test-taking for learning-impaired and print-disabled
kids.
--- THANK YOU -----------------
Many thanks for your time...
Best regards,
William Reilly
william@ reilly2001.info
Somerville, Massachusetts
http://reilly2001.info
=========================
P.S. This page (WhatIsDocBookUsedFor) lists everything _except_ specifying
systems!)
As I note (below, in my post to docbook-apps mailing list):
"Perhaps it's that the overhead of authoring in a markup language is seen
as detrimental to the shorter life of these "upstream" documents, as compared
to downstream documentation efforts, which ought to endure long after a
system is built and in use."
http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/WhatIsDocBookUsedFor
---------------------------------------------
# help systems
# Web sites
# books
# reference pages
# FAQs
# white papers
# training courseware
# articles
# API documentation
# reports
# functional specifications
# "how to" guides and other procedural documentation
# presentations
---------------------------------------------
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: [docbook-apps] DocBook for authoring Technical Requirements,
Specifications?
Date: Thursday 29 January 2004 11:47
From: William Reilly
To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Greetings.
Searching Google, OASIS, and "Requirements" community sites hasn't yet shown
me whether there are XML vocabularies generally in use for creating system
requirements and technical specifications documents.
DocBook occurred to me, despite its having been designed to "doc"ument a
system more than specify one.
Any "SpecBook" or "ReqBook" out there?
Or is going the MS-Word or OpenOffice .DOC template route the only way these
days? (or Rational ReqPro, LiveSpecs, and similar expensive commercial
products)
Perhaps it's that the overhead of authoring in a markup language is seen as
detrimental to the shorter life of these "upstream" documents, as compared to
downstream documentation efforts, which ought to endure long after a system
is built and in use.
Many thanks for suggestions, comments.
William Reilly
Somerville, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
william@reilly2001.info
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-------------------------------------------------------
FINALLY:
Dave Pawson was kind enough to respond with:
You might try .gov sites?
I guess they are still into full requirement specs etc?
Perhaps mix it with iso9000 and stuff as part of the search?
HTH DaveP
(ex mil.std :-)
==========================