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Writing usable software specifications

Brian R. Krause writes about creatives ways of producing usable software specifications, with an emphasis on communicating to stakeholders and developers alike, instead of just producing telephone-book-sized specs. To quote:

An effective spec must be inviting and easy to understand so the whole development team can participate in the design. This way they can catch any problems, and their support can be won early. If a spec is so technical that only engineers can understand it, the marketing department will not feel part of the audience and will not look at it carefully. If a spec is not detailed enough or if the details shown are irrelevant --- like unrealistic placeholder data --- the spec will be taken as a suggestion and not the blueprint for the user interface. A spec must be detailed, but not too detailed.

Posted by jamesr on February 26, 2003 06:56 PM
Categories: Interface design