Missing Specifications In Action

I call them missing specifications in action because there is usually some paper called specification, but it is not really the whole specification. This is a very critical issue because a complete specification is a core factor to success (I would argue it one of three core factors, but thats another blog post).

A complete specification have to among all things expresses the priorities of the design, because for 99.999% of all projects, resources and nature laws sets the limits that we engineers have to find a balance among and we cannot find the optimal balance without guidance.

The first hard thing is to identify the properties of a complete specification quickly in order to know when you got a missing specification in action. I think many of you who are in the business have a stomach feeling for such a specification problem, yet it can be hard to clarify it to clients.

Usually, priorities will be set, but at a later point in time by some manager. This is the same thing as saying that the main specification will be delivered orally after the developers have started designing the system.

The open question is how to tell clients: "hey, look here, there's a lot of details in the spec but no indication of how to prioritize."