"Indeed I just received from a client, who often involves me at the 
beginning of each project, an early draft of a document titled 
"functional spec for...", that did not say anything about the UI or 
the technical plumbing -- it was just a description of the various 
things the product had to do."

I am coming into the thread rather late, so forgive me if I missed this
earlier, but what you are describing here as a "functional spec", sounds an
awful lot like the first iteration of the use cases we encounter in many
companies.

The use cases we've been involved with start with a description of what the
user needs to be able to do -- regardless of where or how that will be
accomplished in the application. As the use cases iterate, they become more
specific and eventually include field level accuracy.

I know that use case definitions and methods for developing them vary widely
across companies that employ them, but the functional spec sure sounds like
the same approach.

Joseph Selbie
Founder, CEO Tristream
Web Application Design
http://www.tristream.com



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