Parameter

In this article I am trying to comprehend information available about parameters in the wild.

Let’s try to define what parameter is:

“Parameter is a software construct whose value decides behavior of a software component/system”

Now the next question arises then what is property. In my point of view property is again a parameter (here it is not class property from object oriented world). The word property got its prominence from Java property files which essentially store key value pair in ASCII file.

No we have clear understanding of parameter. Let’s try to understand what are the various attributes attached to a parameter.

1. Data type
a. Simple (primitive – like integer, character, etc)
b. Complex (like an object type in object oriented world, tree structure in XML world)
c. Binary ( e.g. image, audio, video, etc)
2. Value
a. Key Value (x = 10)
b. Key Values ( x = 10, 15, 20)
3. Default Value/s
4. Group it belong to
5. Location in hierarchy ( say Corporate, Regional, branch, etc)
6. Over riding in hierarchy ( say Corporate value of a parameter takes precedence over Regional)
7. Status in life cycle (active, suspend, deleted, marked to be deleted, mark to be suspended, marked for deleted, etc)
8. Effective from ( date and time)
9. In effective from (date & time)
10. To what state of SDLC it belong – design time, test time, complete time, build time, run time, etc)
11. Storage location ( RDBMS, File system, etc)
12. Serializable ( Yes or No)
13. Current value, historical values, future probable values
14. Range of possible values
15. Boundary conditions
16. Who can update it (Role or user)
17. Can it be updated at run time (Yes or No)
18. How to manage changes in parameter value/s if it is under transaction ( changeable at run time or not – both cases)
19. Remarks