Systems templates

Using the records

These editable records follow the case-service example from its interface contract to the components and business rules that preserve it. Each blank Markdown record has a completed example with matching headings. The comma-separated values (CSV) inventories open in a spreadsheet. Choose fields that help your team and link records it already maintains.

Interface contract

Describe the participants, authority, information, accepted result, timing, versions and errors. Include what the caller can establish after a lost response.

• Blank contract — Markdown
• Completed contract — Markdown
• Blank interface inventory — CSV
• Completed interface inventory — CSV

Failure and recovery

Record failures at each step, what remains known, the permitted next action and who investigates. Distinguish a proposed check from its observed result.

• Blank recovery record — Markdown
• Completed recovery record — Markdown

Compatibility and change

Identify affected consumers, old and new behaviour, transition, checks and support. Include changes to meaning and permissions as well as message shape.

• Blank change record — Markdown
• Completed change record — Markdown

Component responsibilities

Describe the rule or behaviour owned by a component, its contracts, dependencies, state and permitted effects. Record why the separation is useful and what a replacement must preserve.

• Blank component record — Markdown
• Completed component record — Markdown

Rules and checks

Record the facts a rule requires, the change it permits, the conditions that must remain true and the reasons for rejection. The CSV check inventory distinguishes expected from actual results.

• Blank rule record — Markdown
• Completed rule record — Markdown
• Blank check inventory — CSV
• Completed check inventory — CSV

Contracts between steps

Record inputs, outputs, acceptance, authority and failure for a computation, prompt or tool step. Keep a proposed output’s identity and review status visible to the next consumer.

• Blank step contract — Markdown
• Completed summary contract — Markdown

Diagram sources

The newly authored diagrams are available as Mermaid text and structured JSON, retaining their labels and connections for adaptation.

• System responsibilities — Mermaid

• Integration decision cycles — Mermaid

• Integration diagrams — JSON

• Component responsibilities — Mermaid

• Software decision cycles — Mermaid

• Software diagrams — JSON

Edition and reuse

Version 1.0 · September 2026 · © 2005–2026 Adrian Sutherland.

Refreshed for the September 2026 website update. Keep the edition note with the files and identify adaptations by their source asset, version and filename. The completed examples are fictional; proposed checks need actual results before they can support a service decision.

Read the systems integration edition note for authorship and version history.

Read the software logic edition note for authorship and version history.

The Portal-authored downloads use CC BY 4.0: reuse and adapt them with credit, a licence link and changes identified. The edition note records the scope and any separate notices.