We at Emvico don't write specifications anymore. After many years in the IT industry, we have learned to:
- Projects are a rather unsuccessful phenomenon in the industry
- It is difficult to define expectations against budget in a meaningful way once the work starts. It is common for things to appear during the journey that there is no room for in the budget.
- Specifications are mostly meaningless, except for non-functional requirements.
- Words are difficult to absorb for a customer who is not used to or can see the system in front of him.
- The need will change during the project - that's 100% guaranteed.
So our approach these days is usually to:
- Define overall system goals and epics along with an attempt to describe what the goal is for you to be able to do.
- Explain carefully that the system will evolve over time and that the production phase is central. It is only when the system starts to be used that you as a customer see if something is not working (completely).
- Define non-functional requirements well.
- Use mockups to show what the system will be.
We use mockups as a substitute for specifications. We listen to you as a customer and translate your needs into a design and mockup. Together we tweak them until they feel good and everyone agrees on the target image. We will change together but that's okay!
Are you still writing detailed specifications? (maybe we are wrong 😊)