This and the W6H are what I tell any new developer to include when briefing their efforts to clients or management.<p>The W6H overlaps the Heilmeier Catechism some:<p><pre><code> - Who: Who will perform the work?
- What: What work will be performed?
- Where: Where will the work be performed? Is the env. suitable or are purchases needed? If purchases, what?
- Why: Why are you/we the people to perform this work? Why does this work need to be performed? Why are we not using an off-the-shelf solution (this is where you can present an Analysis of Alternatives and/or Gap Analysis)?
- When: When will the work start? When is it expected to end? When is it needed and what is it needed by?
- Which: Which customer are you performing the work for?
- How: What are your planned methods, at a highlevel, and reasoning behind those choices?
</code></pre>
The original source for the above is Aristotle, but thanks to Wikipedia [1] I've always thought the way I use them to more match Hermagoras of Temnos, as quoted in pseudo-Augustine's De Rhetorica[2]:<p>Quis, quid, quando, ubi, cur, quem ad modum, quibus adminiculis.[3]
(Who, what, when, where, why, in what way, by what means)<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws</a><p>[2] Cecil W. Wooten, George Alexander Kennedy, eds., The orator in action and theory in Greece and Rome, 2001. ISBN 90-04-12213-3, p. 36.<p>[3] Robertson, D.W. Jr (1946). "A Note on the Classical Origin of "Circumstances" in the Medieval Confessional". Studies in Philology. 43 (1): 6–14. JSTOR 4172741.