Authoring in an existing Practice Framework is broken into three separate areas of concern:

• Environment set up. Making sure you the practice framework elements you need for authoring, as well as the process to follow for authoring.
• Practice Framework architecting: Extending the framework to support your specifc context and the Practices and/or Practice Configurations are authoring
• Practice authoring: Authoring new or customizing existing practices
• Practice Configuration authoring: Authoring new or customizing existing practice configurations, including cross-practice processes and navigation views

In general, the general flow for authoring in a practice framework is as follows:

• Think about what you would like to produce.
• Set up your authoring environment to include the necessary framework elements (Roadmap: Set Up Method Authoring Environment).
• Perform the necessary authoring activities based on what you want to produce:
• • Author new practices (Roadmap: Author a New Practice)
  • Customize existing practices (Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice),
  • Author new practice configurations by assembling practices (Roadmap: Author a New Practice Configuration)
  • Customize existing practice configurations by assembling practices and/or practice configurations (Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration)
  • Customize the existing practice framework architecture to support your practice and practice configuration authoring (Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture)

A practice framework contains a number of different types of elements, each of which can be created or customized.  Thus, when authoring within a practice framework, it is important to clearly identify your intended result and follow a well-defined path for getting there.

You can use the following questions to help you determine exactly what needs to be done to what element in the framework:       

• Do you want to add a new role, tasks, or work product?
• • Do those elements reflect a new technique or approach for working?
  • • If so, you need to create a new practice that includes the new elements, as well as any practice-specific processes that assembles those elements. For more information, see Roadmap: Author a New Practice. 
    • If not, is the element intended to be shared across practices?
    • • If so, then you need to customize (specifically, extend) the practice framework core to include the new elements. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture. 
      • If not, then you need to customize (specifically, extend) an existing practice to include the new elements, including extending any practice-specific processes to include the new elements. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice.
  • Do you want the new elements to appear in an existing cross-practice process?
  • • If so, for each cross-practice process where you want the new elements to appear, you need to customize the cross-practice processes in the practice configurations to include the new elements. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.
         
• Do you want to add a new process that assembles elements from existing practices (i.e., create a new cross-practice process)?
  • Is there already a practice configuration where that process would fit (i.e., the practice configuration includes the elements needed to assemble the new process, and the new process will fit well with the other processes in the configuration)?
    • If so, then you need to customize the existing practice configuration by creating a new cross-practice process from the existing practice elements. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.
    • If not, then you probably need to create a new practice configuration that includes a new cross-practice process. For more information, see Roadmap: Author a New Practice Configuration.
        
• Do you want to add new guidance to an existing method element (role, task, work product, guidance, process)?
  • Does the element exist in a practice? 
    • If so, then you need to customize the practice to include the new guidance and associate that guidance to the element. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice. 
    • If not, then you need to customize the practice framework core to include the new guidance and associate that guidance to the element. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture. 
          
• Do you want to customize existing guidance?
  • Does the guidance exist in a practice? 
    • If so, you need to customize the practice. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice.
    • If not, you need to customize the practice framework core. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture. 
          
• Do you want to customize (not just by adding guidance) an existing role, task or work product?
  • Does the element exist in a practice?
    • If so, you need customize the practice that includes the element (customizing both the element, as well as an practice-specific processes that contain the element). For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice.
    • If not, you need to customize the practice framework core. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture.  
  • Do you want the method content element changes reflected in one or more cross-practice processes that include those elements?
    • If so, for each process that you want to reflect the customizations, you need to customize the practice configuration that includes the process to include the method content element changes. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.
             
• Do you want to customize an existing process by adding elements from an existing practice?
• • Does the default configuration for the process (the method configuration for the associated practice configuration) already include the practice to be added from?
  • • If so, then you need to customize the existing cross-practice process using the existing practice elements. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.
    • If not, then you need to customize the existing cross-practice process using the elements that are not in the current practice configuration. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration
       
• Do you want to customize an existing process by changing the flow between elements?
• • Is the process practice-specific?
  • • If so, you need to customize the practice to change the flow in the practice-specific process. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice. 
    • If not, the process is cross-practice and part of a practice configuration. Thus, you need to customize the practice configuration to change the flow of the cross-practice process. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.     
          
• Do you want to customize an existing process by changing the roles that are used?
• • Is the process practice-specific?
  • • If so, you need to customize the practice to change the practice role assignments to use the new roles. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice. 
    • If not, the process is cross-practice and part of a practice configuration. Thus, you need to do the following: 
    • • Customize the practice framework core to add a new set of roles (and possibly a role set). For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture. 
      • Identify the practice configuration that the process is a part of.
      • Customize the practices that participate in the process (i.e., the practices in the original practice configuration) to use the new roles (i.e., change the practice role assignments). For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice. 
      • Customize the practice configuration to use the new role assignments.  For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.
           
• Do you want to customize an existing process by changing the domains or disciplines that are used? If so, then what you need to do is:
• • Identify the practice configuration that the process is a part of.
  • Customize the practice framework core to add the new domains or disciplines. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Framework Architecture. 
  • Customize the practices that participate in the process (the practices in the original practice configuration) to use the new domains or disciplines (i.e., change the practice's domain or discipline assignments). For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice. 
  • Customize the practice configuration to use the new standard categories. For more information, see Roadmap: Customize an Existing Practice Configuration.