Pots, Kettles, Specifications and Andy Warhol

mrG — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 09:59:21 -0400

Mark thinks he's narrowed down an argument for why good software specifications matter

If your spec isn't good enough, morons have no chance of ever getting things right. The spec ... will fail to resolve anything, and the arguments will smolder for years.

If your spec is good enough, morons have a fighting chance of getting things right the second time around, without being besieged by assholes. Meanwhile, the assholes ... eventually get bored and wander off in search of someone else to harass.

Trouble is, Mark, I think you've hit the nail on the head for why incremental development is the only sane path. You've also neglected the reality of there being Morons and Assholes in charge of writing specifications, and yes, I speak with the authority of having too many times played all four sides of this fence.

In response, I'd like to offer my own advice born of my few decades random walk through the halls of the software craft, experience that has covered military, industrial, academic and business software, games, websites, webservices and gallery artworks.

These, in a single post, are Three Unspeakable Secrets of Software Design.

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Pots, Kettles, Specifications and Andy Warhol