User Interface Freeze Milestone

Introduction

The purpose of the User Interface Freeze is to ensure that the User Interface (UI) and all product elements seen by the customer will undergo no further changes. Hence, once this milestone is achieved, translation can begin, documentation can be finalized, and test macros can be completed without risk of major changes.

Timing

The exact timing of this milestone will vary depending on the scope of the individual projects, but should generally occur at alpha or shortly thereafter. It is recommended that each product team discuss and agree upon a UI freeze point as early in the development process as possible.

Objectives of this Milestone

Review the User Interface of the entire product,
Verify that the UI meets freeze criteria and thus can be frozen, and
Establish a formal change process and freeze committee that must review and approve any further UI changes prior to their implementation.

General checklist

All Product team members have reviewed and approved all areas of the UI listed below. This includes (but is not limited to):

all menus
all dialogs
all error messages
all help and related items
all program navigation (including tab order, initial focus, and default action)
all icons and icon descriptions
all strings and program text
all symbols and clip art
all logos and splash screens
all sample and gallery files
all program messages
all templates
all installation messages, strings, dialogs, and infomercials
all of the above for any product externals (utilities) including those from third parties.

Development checklist

All UI elements changed since last product release have been fully implemented and tested.
Usability testing has been completed on a worldwide range of test subjects, results analyzed by product team, and any associated changes have implementation plans which are acceptable to all team members.

Publications checklist

All UI elements have been reviewed by the Publications team to make sure:
- Terminology and style are consistent throughout the product and its components (for example HGW and the symbol library need to use the same terminology and style)
- Terminology and style are "user-friendly" (for example, use pictures and diagrams to explain concepts)
- Terminology and style are concise (for example, keep the dialogs lean and uncluttered)
- Terminology is properly capitalized, spelled, and punctuated.
Lists of all changes since any prior releases of documentation to international are available and complete. A process for tracking any further changes is in place and agreed on by International and Publications.

SQE checklist

All UI elements changed since the last release of the product have been fully implemented and tested.
All strings fit within dialogs and room for 30-50% expansion in string length is allocated.
Test plans have been distributed to the team.
Completed macros are "localizable" and have been reviewed by International to ensure they will run on the translated products. SQE is familiar with international macro guidelines for any further macro development.

International checklist

List of UI items to freeze has been created and distributed to product team.
The entire UI has been reviewed, including changes suggested by previous product teams.
All UI elements changed since the last release of the product have been reviewed.
The mock translation has been performed and tested.
Domestic macros have been reviewed and tested and are "localizable" and thus will run on the translated products. Domestic SQE has guidelines so that future macro development will produce localizable macros.
String expansion has been tested, length limits established, and there's sufficient space for expansion.
Extended character support has been tested.
Usability testing methodology is appropriate and the results have been analyzed.
Access to all source, macros, and test plans has been granted and is appropriate.
Entire product has been reviewed for culture specific references and terminology especially in sample files, tutorials, doc, help, and icons.
Any dictionary-based features are available in localized languages and are easily switched to local language versions.

Support checklist

Check that UI is easy to use and consistent with customer need and requests
Customer feedback relating to UI changes has been collected

Marketing checklist

Entire UI has been reviewed for competitive appropriateness and is marketable.
UI is easy to use and consistent with customer need and requests
Customer feedback relating to UI changes has been collected
Usability studies have been completed and results distributed to and discussed with the team

User Interface Freeze

Project Code Name Product Name Version

Approval Signatures

This project has achieved User Interface Freeze.

Date:______________

Project Manager ________________________________________

Product Manager ________________________________________

SQA Manager ________________________________________

Publications Manager ________________________________________

International R&D Manager ________________________________________

Support Representative ________________________________________

[other signature lines.] ________________________________________

Project Manager	________________________________________
Product Manager	________________________________________
SQA Manager	________________________________________
Publications Manager	________________________________________
International R&D Manager	________________________________________
Support Representative	________________________________________
[other signature lines.]	________________________________________