Read from the beginning.

Update 2012/05/31: Universe of Discourse v1.1

What’s the Name?

The naming of websites is a difficult matter. It isn’t just one of your holiday games….

I brainstormed for a while for a name that said reviews, information, and beer. After some trial and error to find an available domain name, the idea clicked. I’m proud to announce my successful procurement of the following domain names:

• whatsthisbrew.com
• whatsthisbrew.net

So now the website has a name. What’s This Brew?

Brainstorming

To kick of the process, I began brainstorming. This is a great way to to get the idea onto paper and get some momentum.

The brainstorming method is normally best done with multiple people. This way, you get a good mix of different ideas. If you do decide to fly solo when you develop a piece of software, make sure you vet your ideas and get plenty of feedback as you go.

Brainstorming is meant to be an outpouring of different ideas. No matter how unrealistic the idea, just get it written down. You can always strip away the bad ideas later. The reason for this is that brainstorming should make use of your intuitive thoughts. Your intuitive reasoning is based on your life experience, as well as your inherent intelligence. You will usually be right.

Here is a a brainstorming mind map which I made with the great free tool bubbl.us.

Universe of Discourse

The universe of discourse, in this context, differs from a formal universe of discourse used in mathematics and formal logic. Here, I’m talking about an informal document which describes the entities which exist in the context of the system. It is a volatile document, which may change when new data types are added or removed.

The universe of discourse document is usually accompanied by more structured documentation like an Entity Relationship diagram and a schema mapping; both of which are based on the information contained within the UoD document. Therefore, it is important to maintain the UoD in line with reliant documents.

Here is the current Universe of Discourse document.

Coming Up

Still to come are the Entity Relationship diagram and schema mapping, as mentioned above.

In tandem, there are a few other documents and stages of the project which I will be working on. They will help to shape these initial diagrams by further honing in on the functions and entities I want and to discard the ideas which I can do without. These include user stories and some very rough design sketches.

Onward!