For the last year or so, I have been working on a very large application. I am currently on version 17 of it, and every time, I start over with some of the code from before. But now, this is starting to become unmanageabley large.When I do the design for the application, I generally start with a Word document, outlining all the classes, with the functions, descriptions for each, their dependencies, default configuration data, and how each component augments the rest of the application. But with that method, within a few hours, I can easily reach 20-30 pages of documentation, and the nice simple outline of the software because so complex in itself, using that as the template to write the code to becomes difficult.So, now, I am trying to describe the application in an XML format, built on an XSD that contains the structure of how the classes will be laid out. But, this is also demonstrating its problems.At this stage, everything ahead of the base application has been designed (the database er diagrams, the functionality, etc), but the main problems lies in the design of the underlying software that runs it all.So, can anyone recommend what path I should go down, either with specific ways to lay out a Word document for easy reading, an XML pattern that would do the same, or some other software package that can do this for me and help guide me through the development?Any help would be greatly appreciated, mainly because once this part has been cracked, my application can finally be built and completed.Thanks
How to design (just the outline) an enterprise class PHP application
design;project management;project;project structure