On 7 Oct 2009, at 12:02, Siegy Adler wrote:
When asked to describe what a spec is, I often use the following
construction analogy:
1) The property owner (i.e., stakeholder) meets with the architect
(i.e., spec writer) to describe the structure (i.e.,
Website/application) they want built
2) The architect drafts the blueprint (i.e., spec)
3) The contractor (i.e., developer) builds the structure based on the
blueprint
Do you agree?
[snip]
Only if it's like architecture is in real life (where the contracter
will then tell the architect that X and Y can't be done because of Z,
and the Q will cost three times the amount of money than expected -
and they'll both go back to the client, and tweak things, and move on,
and discover new problems, tweak the plans, tweak the building, and
work it out together, etc.)
In my experience if you ask any architect about the relationship
between the original plans/blueprints of any non-trivial construction
and the building that got constructed you are guaranteed an
interesting conversation.
That's not because the original blueprints were wrong... it's that a
building is always more than the blueprints.
Specs in software are the same.
Cheers,
Adrian
--
http://quietstars.com - twitter.com/adrianh - delicious.com/adrianh
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