on writing Functional Specifications

If anyone has worked on preparing such documents (usually Business Analyst, System Analyst or Software Architect’s job), or needs to work on them then the following resources and tools could be very handy.

Resources

Although there are a scant few sites out there that deal with Functional Specification Documents directly, there are many resources you can use for various aspects of spec writing. The following sites are just a handful of the really good informational sources out there relating to (in one way or another) the discipline of creating Functional Specs: usability, visual design, architecting information, web design, etc..

Sample Functional Spec -View a chapter from a spec I wrote
xblog -visual thinking weblog
elegant hack -information architecture reading list
peterme -interface design reading list
metagrrl -design process in online Environments
Usable Web -links to web usability articles
Webword -usability
Use It -usability
Joel on Software -good look at writing functional specs
Webmonkey IA Tutorial -information architecture
Photoshop Workshop -Photoshop tutorials
Boxes and Arrows -The definitive source for the complex task of bringing architecture and design to the digital landscape
STC Reference Documents -This collection of reference documents and templates is housed by the Society for Technical Communication
TECHWR-L Document Types -Similar to the above STC, here you can find many tools and examples for the functional spec writer (although not always aimed squarely for functional specs)
Extending the Benefits of Prototyping -Good article about software prototyping
Chart and Diagram Tutorial -Very interesting tutorial on creating charts and diagrams
Software Usability Research Lab -You can find some very good articles about web usability and designing a strong web experience
Seven Pitfalls to Avoid in IA -Interesting and relevant article highlighting the common things to avoid when structuring your information
How Non-Programmers Use Documentation -This article points to the ways non-programmer type people use documentation and how you can use that information. A useful perspective since at least some of your readers will undoubtedly be non-programmers
Strategies of Influence in Interaction Design -Funny thing is, is that the scenario described in this article pretty much happened to me as well. Read this and learn how to manage the other part of your spec: the office politics
Representations and Perceived Information Architecture -This article discusses two key ideas. First, it briefly outlines four ways to represent the same information. Second, it provides a high level overview of Perceived Information Architecture.

Tools

DocBook -DocBook is a widely used DTD for creating technical documents in XML and SGML. Be prepared to learn about open-source tools if you go this direction

OASIS -OASIS maintains the most current version of DocBook, and also has a lot of other useful information for the DocBook user

XML Pro -If you’re using DocBook then you’ll probably want some sort of XML editor (of course, you can always use your own favorite text editor if you wish). XML Pro is a pretty good one

FrameMaker -Depending on what you’re working on, FrameMaker might be an overkill. FrameMaker is more designed for 500+ page documents, but again: it’s a personal preference

PageMaker -PageMaker can also be used by your average spec writer. The advantage here is the ability to manage multiple documents and assemble them into books

PhotoShop -Useful picture editor tool

Word -This is the primary tool for writing

Visio -Visio is another very useful tool. This is the program you use to create diagrams, flowcharts, models, etc

Acrobat -This is what you use to convert your specs into PDFs. Having your spec in a pdf format is useful because it is the format of choice for sharing and protecting your documents.

How to automate filling web forms and so?

iMacros is the Firefox add-on that you need to install in your Mozill Firefox browser. I read about how one guy (uberaffiliate.com) pwned Facebook using iMacros and made some cash. What he did is that he created around 500 Facebook accounts by automating Facebook new user sign-up form filling with a macro in iMacros! In iMacros you can record your activities using Record functionality, save it as a macro, edit it and play it as many times as you want. So you just need to record Facebook new user sign-up activity only once, and then copy+paste it inside macro as many times as you want.
What about email? It should be different each time. If you have registered domain, then it is easy! In order to use different email address each time, you just need to create one Email Forwarding account for your domain (abc@yourdomain.com) and make it “Catch All” account.

(GoDaddy.com Help) A catch-all email account is an address that is specified to receive all messages that are addressed to an incorrect email address for a domain. For example, you have three email addresses set up for coolexample.com; info@coolexample.com, sales@acoolexample.com, and webmaster@coolexample.com, you can set up info@coolexample.com as a catch-all email account. Then, any email messages sent to manager@coolexample.com (or any other invalid email address), are sent to the catch-all account (info@coolexample.com).

You can set up one email address as a catch-all account per domain name.

Once you install it, it will appear on the left side of the browser. It’s very easy to learn how to use it. There are 3 functions; Play, Record, Edit. After recording the macros, you can open it (by default it opens with Notepad), edit and save it. You can export info to CSV files as well.

Ways to use it;

1. Form Filler & Password Manager
2. Automated Download & Upload
3. Data Extraction, Web Scraping/Mining & Enterprise Data Mash-Ups
4. Web Testing
5. Social Scripting (Social Bookmarking)
6. and others (upto your imagination!)

I just started testing it, and already big fan of it!

Hint: (If you already haven’t thought about it yet) It can be used to generate traffic (pageloads) in your blogs (CPMs!!!), create repetitive affiliate referrals (you gotta play with macros a lot), and in many other evil ways. But I’m sure people on the other side are also smart enough to track it down. I do not recommend!

PageRank, Google and SEO

MyPageRank.Net provided with new SEO tools that is must-have on everyone’s blog or web-site;

1. Google PageRank

2. Latest GoogleBot access time, it is a web-crawler that access your site regularly and updates Google indexes

3. Latest Yahoo bot access time

4. SEO Stats

GIP & GBL – Google stats
YIP & YBL – Yahoo stats
MIP – MSN stats
ALR & ABL – Alexa stats
TUV – Today Unique Visitors
TPV – Today Page Views
YUV – Yesterday Unique Visitors
YPV – Yesterday Page Views
AUV – Average Daily Unique Visitors
APV – Average Daily Page Views
Current # users online

I don’t agree with some stats like Unique Visitors and Pageviews, at the moment it is showing much different than StatCounter and Feedjit. I just installed it, in following days I expect it to be accurate.

5. Submit your site to many other search engines (only after sign-up)

6. Find out how many links your domain has on the most common search engines (only after sign-up)

7. Create Google Sitemaps, Yahoo Sitemaps, and ROR Sitemaps (only after sign-up);
Can someone explain me the real benefits of the sitemaps? It says it helps Google to crawl your website better.

8. Bulk PageRank checker (only after sign-up);
You can check PageRank of any web-site(s)

9. Ping Service (only after sign-up);
How it helps? I’ll update once I find out the answer.

10. Find out how Spider bots view your website. This includes most major search bots including Google, MSN and Yahoo!
How could I evaluate and use this information?

11. Meta Tag Analysis;
Great tool! I found out that I don’t use Meta tags at all!!! Start with updating your meta tag titles, descriptions and keywords in order to get higher pagerank.

12. Links Check;
You can see the list of the links from your site to other sites. See whose PageRank are you increasing?

13. Star Ratings;
It was always on my wish list! Just add it under your each post so that readers could rate them as well!

14. Social Bookmark Tool;
All in one. Add links to all bookmark tools (del.icio.us, digg, stumbleUpon!, etc.) with one piece of code. I didn’t like the buttons, they are too small.

…and some more tools. Check MyPageRank.Net – great job!

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How to increase the number of your blog readers?

How to get more readers to subscribe to your blog / site / RSS feeds?

Particularly, how to increase number of subscribers through FeedBurner?

(For those who doesn’t know this service, it is excellent web-service owned by Google that helps to get subscribers to your blog/site and provides small display widget to see the numbers of your RSS subscribers, and you can add small indicator in your blog. Learn more about RSS and FeedBurner, or watch demo video.)

As JohnChow described; FeedBurner’s subscriber count is based on an approximation of how many times your feed has been requested in a 24-hour period. If a reader doesn’t access his feed reader for a few days, he is no longer counted even though he is still a subscriber. So the object was to get everyone to check their feed everyday.

FeedBurner counts an email subscriber for as long as they can send them emails. Unlike a RSS reader, If the RSS by Email subscriber doesn’t read his email for several days, he is still counted. The only time his count stops is if he unsubscribe to the service. So the key is to get subscribers by Email!

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Credits; johnchow.com