Talk:Functional specification

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I would highly recommend including a link to http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000036.html regarding the writing of functional specs. I've been writing web app functional specs for the last 7 years and this is without doubt the best "how to write" a functional spec I've come across.

212.24.93.12 12:50, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] General Engineering

This article is written in a way that one would believe that Functional Specs are only used in software engineering, this is untrue. Many 'traditional' engineering projects use functional specs to specify the functions of the engineering system that is being developed.

I think this article needs to be re-written to show this.

[edit] Business vs Technical

After 20 years in business technology the one point I try to remind new programmers is that 'getting clear business requirements is very different from detailed functional requirements'.

Further, without clear business requirements any programmer regardless of skill is potentially destined to failure in the eyes of the people paying the bills or using the end product.

There is a strong need to remove technology references in these business requirements. This avoids confusion about putting this field here or there and what types of screens etc and allows focus to settle on the job that the user expects the user to complete.

For example, I expect the iPhone designers did have potential users saying I want 'easy access to my email', I bet they didn't accept requirements that say 'with a big hexagonal button on the top left in a particular shade of purple' the latter are technical implementation details. Implementation and requirements are very distinct.

If the business requirements are written clearly, the post-development acceptance testing (usually referred to as UAT - User Acceptance Testing) can clearly have a test applied that checks if a requirement is met or not in the eyes of the business representative. Peterjcooper 04:57, 23 July 2007 (UTC)