Frames

How To Frame a Problem with Skill (The Art of Framing)

At Microsoft, we use the term "frame" or "framing a problem" in the context of project management. You might hear somebody ask, "what's the frame?" or "how have you framed the problem?" A Frame is simply a way to partition a problem. The heart of a frame is coming up with a context to understand the dimensions that matter and figure out how to prioritize and scope. One way teams often frame a space is by building a catalog of user stories and then organizing them into themes.

Engineering Practices Frame

One of my earlier projects on the patterns & practices team at Microsoft was originally called Life-Cycle Practices. Later, I renamed it to Life-Cycle Templates. Finally, I settled on Engineering Practices. Engineering Practices became a key organizing theme for our work and served as the foundation for our ALM frame. Knowledge AreasThe Engineering Practices Frame …

Quality Attributes Frame

I found an organizing frame for quality attributes (security, performance, … etc.) on SoftwareArchitectures.com and I think it’s helpful. They organize quality attributes by the following: Runtime system qualities Non-runtime system qualities Business qualities Architecture qualities Domain specific qualities. Quality Attribute Frame This table shows an example of some quality attributes organized by the Quality …

Security Frame

While working on Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures, my team created the software security frame. We used the Security Frame to organize and prioritize software security issues. We used this frame throughout the guide to organize our guidelines and checklists. We also used the Security Frame to build evaluation criteria to help find …

Performance Frame

Photo by mrkumm While working on Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability (Patterns & Practices), my team created the software performance frame. We used the performance frame to organize and prioritize software performance and scalability issues. We used this frame throughout the guide to organize our guidelines and checklists. We also used the performance frame …