Re: What's with the new docs?

[Kent Newton <KentN -at- METRIX-INC -dot- COM>]

The problem with this, at least in my experience, is that the final
product often diverges from the details of the specs in some ways: the
programmers find a fault with the spec as written, the person who
designed the spec in the first place changes his or her mind, or other
features are added or combined.

Danny Dresner writes:

>We are encouraged by the way Steven Wolfram did Mathematica ... he wrote
and
>published the entire user manual, then made the development team make
the
>software work the way the manual said it did ... Maybe we should be
prepared
>to get more involved in the software design end.

It may be of interest to you that we here at the UK's National
Computing Centre (NCC) have taught project managers to have the
writing of the user documentation done in response to the Requirements
Specification
and then all development stems from that.

(We are 30 years old this year so somebody trusts us!)

Regards




************************************************************
Danny Dresner
Deputy Documentation Manager/Quality Manager
Documentation Unit
Systems Engineering
The National Computing Centre Ltd.
Oxford House, Oxford Road
Manchester M1 7ED, UK
daniel -dot- dresner -at- ncc -dot- co -dot- uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 228 6333 Direct Line: +44 (0)161 242 2352
Fax: +44 (0)161 236 9877

"Logic merely allows one to be wrong with authority!"