A single entry in the VCF design guide, be it a requirement, a recommendation or a choice, labelled with an ID and accompanied by justification and implication text. Elements outside the chosen configuration are not implemented.
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Terms in this definition
- VCF design guide
Broadcom's design documentation for VCF 9.0, comprising the Architectural Options, Design Blueprints and Design Library; each design element in it is tagged as a requirement, a recommendation or a choice.
- Requirement
A need that is stated clearly enough to be measured or tested, leaves no ambiguity and is essential for the result to be accepted.
- Justification
Every requirement and recommendation in VCF design elements carries one: the reasoning for why the selected option meets the requirement better than the other choices, not a restatement of the decision itself.
- Implication
Every requirement and recommendation in the VCF design guidance lists these: the knock-on effects of a choice, whether good or bad. Typical ones are cost, footprint, operational effort, dependencies, impact on other qualities and options that are no longer open.
Related terms
- Design choice
Requires picking one option among several, whether that is an individual setting or a lower-level model from the Design Library; requirements and recommendations belonging to the options not picked then fall away. It is one type of VCF design element.
- Design recommendation
A VCF design element describing recommended practice. Designs can diverge from it as long as the departure is recorded together with the reason and its consequences.
- Design requirement
A VCF design element that is essential for VCF to work and therefore cannot be departed from; within a customer design it acts as a constraint, not a choice.