Simple Spec Path presentation makes a proposal for a software development and delivery approach that enables a rapid start of Sitecore project implementation phase in a short period of time. The approach allows executing a transition from the high-level business requirements to a certain level of implementation details that are essential for enterprise-level software development phase start and successful delivery of the final software product.

1. Sitecore Development
Phase Quick Start –
Simple Spec Path
Peter Nazarov
Sitecore Development and Delivery Consultant

2. Why business need new software?
• Business process needs automation
• Business process is complexity is too high to process it manually
• Business is growing and needs to be scaled out
• Current software is not working
• Performance is too low
• Is not stable
• Difficult to maintain or the maintenance cost is too high
• Is out of date
• No longer supported
• Time to market period is too long

3. What are the typical business problems
that needs to be automated?

4. What are typical business goals?

5. Can we start software development based
on this information?
• We need to come to an agreement what the software behaviour is going to be

6. Can we capture our agreement using a
“Simple Spec”?

7. Well, we take the following steps…

8. 1. Start with capturing user journeys
• User journey has a starting point, a set of user actions and the business
outcome which is perfect way to capture software behaviour that makes
sense to the business and the software development team.
Action 1 Action 2 Action 3
Business
Outcome
Starting
Point
Persona

9. 1. Outcome: Set of User Journeys
Action 1 Action 2 Action 3
Business
Outcome
Startin
g PointPersona
Action 1 Action 2 Action 3
Business
Outcome
Startin
g PointPersona
Action 1 Action 2 Action 3
Business
Outcome
Startin
g PointPersona
…
• System-Level view of software behaviour

10. 1. Outcome: Set of User Journeys
• Sitecore Experience Platform Artefacts
• Engagement Plans
• Goals
• Personas
• Personas + User Journeys
• Profiles Cards
• Pages’ Classification
• E2E Testing Automation Scenarios
• Can be automated with Selenium (BrowserStack, New Relic)

11. 2. Identify Pages and their URLs
• Analyse the user journeys and identify pages and define the their URLs

12. 2. Outcome: Website Page hierarchy and
the URL structure for the website.
• Homepage [/]
• Articles
• Article 1 [/article-1]
• Product Catalogue [/product-catalogue]
• Product 1 [/product-catalogue/product-1]
• My Account [/my-account]
• Edit Profile [/my-account/]
• Login [/login]
• …

13. Logo
NavMy Account Links
Global Search Box
…
Hero Banner H1
Rich Text
Promo Teaser
Footer links
Social Media Links
Legal Links
Copyright
T001 - Homepage
• Sketch/define the “Layout Wireframes” for the identified pages
• Identify page templates types
3. Identify Page Templates
Logo
Nav
My Account LinksGlobal Search Box
…
Hero Banner H1
Rich Text
Promo Teaser
Footer links
Social Media
Links
Legal Links Copyright

14. 3. Outcome: Templates
t001-home-page
T004-product-catalogue-page
t002-articles-landing-page t003-article-page
T005-xxx-xxx
…

15. • Extract a unique page layout from the identified page templates
• Identify page layout types
4. Identify Page Layouts

16. 4. Outcome: Page Layouts
header
content
footer
pl001-hader-content-footer
pl003-hader-sidebar-content-footer
header
content
footer
sidebar
pl002-hader-hero-content-aside-footer
header
footer
hero
content
aside
…

17. • Extract the group of components which appear on multiple page templates
• Identify SXA Partial Designs or Sub-layouts
5. Identify Partial Designs (Sub-Layouts)

18. Logo
Nav
My Account LinksGlobal Search Box
pd001-header
5. Outcome: Partial Designs (Sub-Layouts)
pd002-footer
Footer links
Social Media
Links
Legal Links Copyright
Logo
NavMy Account Links
Global Search Box
Footer links
Social Media Links
Legal Links
Copyright

19. • Extract the components from the identified page templates and partial designs
• Identify components
6. Identify Components

20. c001-logo
6. Outcome: Components
Mobile Desktop
Elements
1 1
Element Name CMS Type HTML Tag Notes Notes Data Source Optional
1 Logo Image Single-Line Text svg
- Logo image is stored in CMS as SVG-text
- On click redirects to the homepage
Sitecore:
Site item
No

21. c012-promo-teaser
6. Outcome: Components
Mobile Desktop
Elements
Element Name CMS Type
HTML Tag
Notes
Notes Data Source Optional Versioned Shared
1
Promo Teaser
Background
Image
Image img - Image Size: 720 x 400 [px]
Sitecore:
Datasource
item
No Yes No
2
Promo Teaser
Heading Text
Single-Line Text h3
Sitecore:
Datasource
item
No Yes No
3
Promo Teaser
Subtitle Text
Multi-Line Text p
- the text fields accepts line-breaks
which to be rendered by a browser
Sitecore:
Datasource
item
Yes Yes No
4
Promo Teaser
Cta
General Link a
Sitecore:
Datasource
item
Yes Yes No
1Heading
Subtitle text
Learn More
2
3
4
1Heading
Subtitle text
Learn More
2
3
4

22. • User journey have been converted to the development-ready artefacts:
• Page Templates
• t001
• t002
• …
• Page Layouts
• pl001
• pl002
• …
• Partial Designs (Sub-Layouts)
• pd001
• pd002
• …
• Components
• c001
• c002
• …
Development Phase Kick-Off

23. • Plan your sprints and start development
• Sprint 1:
• t001
• t002
• pl001
• pl002
• pd001
• pd002
• c001
• c002
• c007
• c008
• c012
• c015
• c017
• c031
Using Agile? Scrum?
Physical Agile Board
Trello
Jira

24. • Can be used and understood by anybody who has a very basic knowledge about
software development
• It helps closing the gap between the business requirement and technical specification
• Produces a structured technical specification which provides enough technical
information for software developers to build the software system
• The simplicity of the approach allows to produce a simple spec in a short period of time
and kick-off the development phase quickly
Simple Spec Path Approach Benefits

25. Thank You
Staying in Touch
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/peternazarov
Slack: sitecorechat.slack.com

26. Q&A
Staying in Touch
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/peternazarov
Slack: sitecorechat.slack.com