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Tips on Writing a Comprehensive Design Document
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Before starting on a design for customizations, we suggest you thoroughly review the software. Even if you've been using Pirouette for some time, read all the available documentation
and take the online certification course to ensure
you're completely familiar with the tools that are already available. Pirouette already contains a lot of functionality, and what you require may already exist in the software. The software
is highly customizable 'out of the box' simply by updating the various maintenence items.
Next, familiarize yourself with the types of tools for entering and viewing data in Pirouette. This is how you will write out exactly what you want your new pages and fields to look like.
Below is a summary of the types of tools available and the information you need to provide for each tool.
General
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- Pages
- Menu Items
- Lists (e.g. the 'Select Client' page)
- Links (e.g. 'Update Legal Status' on the legal problem page)
- Reports
You may create entirely new pages, or add fields to existing Pirouette pages. You must outline how any new page you create in Pirouette will be accessed.
For example, a new page may be accessed from the client history list, or from a new menu item, or from a link on another page.
If you add a list, you need to outline all columns that are included in the list, and whether those columns should be included when a search is executed.
To add a new report, you must outline the exact logic used to produce the report, and what columns you would like returned.
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Data Entry
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- Text/Memo/Numeric Fields
- Checkboxes
- Radio Buttons (e.g. the 'Was there a related referral' question on the intake page)
- Dates
- Times
- Pulldown Lists (for selecting a single item from a list - e.g. client gender)
- Add/Remove Lists (for selecting a multiple items from a list - e.g. client health issues)
- Edit Tables (for adding rows of data entry elements - e.g. legal charges)
Text fields allow all characters to be entered. You must specify the maximum length. Typically one-line fields in Pirouette are 255 characters. Memo fields allow an unlimited amount of
text to be entered, as with the case note entry text. Numeric fields only allow numbers to be entered. You need to decide if a numeric field allows decimals or not.
If you add a list (pulldowns and add/remove lists) you must specify all the items to be included in the list by default. You'll be able to edit these later using the related maintenance item.
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