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| | The Pune Entrepreneurs Network Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Do you think a requirements document is necessary when creating software? | Views: 344 | | Nov 28, 2007 11:30 am | | Do you think a requirements document is necessary when creating software? | # | 
Jitesh Patil | | Hi All,
This might more be a question for software companies out there. Off course we all learned in our software engineering course about SRS (System Requirements Specifications) and other such documents.
But do you all really think that such documents help you in creating the software? I have a few reservations against these:-
1. Not all of us can express what we have in mind in a written document.
2. A persons perception could be different than what the person who wrote the document.
3. Once the project starts, how many of us go back and update the document? Particularly for the last minute change requests.
4. How do we know before hand what software we are going to develop. For me most great ideas happen "during" software development. Not "before" you start developing it.
I am eager to hear what you guys deal with customer expectations before during and after the project.
Regards!
Jitesh
Private Reply to Jitesh Patil | | Nov 28, 2007 2:07 pm | | re: Do you think a requirements document is necessary when creating software? | # | 
Gerald McDowell | | I worked in software development for 5 years, deployed solutions for 10 and owned a software company for 4 years -
Requirements documents are not necessary; however, they do aid development. RDs are good especially when the software development is initiated by a customer/client and it's helpful for those in the field implementing the solution. When there is a separate group responsible for creating the Operations Manual or any other documentation to be used by a customer/client/user or any outside party, it's helpful to this group as well.
Sometimes RDs can be written after development - as long as there is an original document of some sort for those who handle the software in the future.
Another helpful reason for a RD is that it spurs innovation, creativity, and thinking out of the box type of work. It gets the "juices" flowing.
In most cases RD are helpful. One case that comes to mind when it is not helpful is when it prevents development; nevertheless, even in this case, it's important to take a step back, because it could really be pointing out that the development project is on the wrong path.
Gerald
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Ashish Belagali | | Requirements are necessary for building software.
Documentation is necessary to minimize confusion and miscommunication.
=> Requirement Documentation is necessary.
The format and the detailing requirements might vary from case to case. Waterfall requires a very regorous requirement document that is signed off before signing design phase. Agile methodologies tune down the regor from the waterfall by calling them 'user stories'. On the other extreme, a 2-3 liner email might suffice for a small change. However, all these are basically requirement documents.
In an iterative development model, the requirements are always defined for one iteration. In that sense, the requirements get modified in every iteration.
It's also possible that the requirements exist not as a single document but a set of emails/ conversation pieces. As far as there is no confusion regarding what is required to be developed, the purpose of a requirement document is served. But often --especially for medium to large sized projects-- it helps to have all of them in one place. That one place is the requirements document.
In short, the advice is:
- Follow the practice of having requirements document to be safe.
- Take deviation only if you are sure that the purpose is met.
Hope this helps,
/Ashish
Acism, Pune
Ph +91-20-25454409
http://www.acism.com
Private Reply to Ashish Belagali | | |
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