The goal of a design record is to adequately describe a domain-specific software architecture and its software software components such that design decisions and component selections can be accomplished without looking at implementations.
Asset capture and re-capture is supported in ADAGE by the design record, hypermedia browsing capability, and the domain engineering process [#!ADAGEIBM9202!#]. The design record provides a ``common data structure for system documentation and libraries [#!Scherlis90!#]''.
The basic design record data elements, as proposed by Scherlis and arranged according to phases in the software life cycle, include:
In addition to the ``primary'' lifecycle elements listed above, the following ``secondary'' elements aide in the (re-)use of the components by capturing additional information:
For the avionics domain, the ADAGE design records contain the basic data items listed above (with some domain-specific clarifications) in addition to some DSSA-ADAGE specific items including:
The reader should note that because the design record is a dynamic entity in that its contents grow as a component goes through the various stages in the software development life cycle, all component design records do not contain the same amounts of information. In addition, certain design record elements may ``inherit'' values for other records they may be associated with (e.g., a realm component design record inherits the constraints of the realm it is a member of).