Approach

An assignment starts with the data that already exists. Whoever keeps a spreadsheet has thought about their reality; that knowledge is the starting point, not a model designed in isolation.

From that data a schema of concepts, relations and rules emerges. The rules guard the data: an entry that conflicts with reality or with the law is made visible by the system at once. I write such schemas in Ampersand, an open language in which a rule has exactly one meaning.

An assignment has a well-defined result: a working register system, or an architecture with a working prototype, within a fixed period. The approach, the registers and the rationale are part of the handover, so that the organisation can maintain the system itself afterwards.