Quality Money Management : Process Engineering and Best Practices for Systematic Trading and Investment

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CHAPTER ◆ 22

Build and Document the System

Finally, construction and testing of the automated portions of the trading/investment

system are ready to begin. While some trading systems are fully automated, many

consist of varying components—tools and reporting processes—that are automated.

Whatever the case, Step 3 consists of construction of the software components as well

as the hardware and network infrastructure, transforming the designs laid out in the

system architecture documents into real technology. The objective is to produce high qual-

ity components that implement the system ’ s competitive advantage as well as its quality

attributes.

Check

performance

and probationary

trade

Plan and

document

technology

specifications

Implement

Design

system

architecture

3

2

(^1) Build and
document the
system
FIGURE 22-1
By the time the project reaches this step, the groundwork for success has already been
laid. From here, all that is required is proper execution, that is, sticking to the fundamentals.
The idea of construction is to build something every day, even if it is only a very small
piece. At the end of each day, a compile can take place followed by automated unit tests.
If the software compiles and the tests pass, the developers have been synchronized. This is
an ambitious schedule, but the logic is that more frequent compiling provides better, more