Comments on: Why Write A Functional Specification? http://www.mediacrumb.com/2007/05/17/why-write-a-functional-specification/ We Build Kickass Websites and Applications so you don't have too. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:50:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Justin http://www.mediacrumb.com/2007/05/17/why-write-a-functional-specification/#comment-790 Justin Mon, 28 May 2007 18:06:43 +0000 http://www.mediacrumb.com/2007/05/17/why-write-a-functional-specification/#comment-790 Hey nice post! I'd like to suggest another great tool for visualizing a design through your users eyes. This idea is inline with what you were saying about how just writing the spec can help generate new ideas "As you write you’ll have a few Epiphanies..." Write use case scenario's! It's really pretty simple and kinda fun. What you do is take a persona that you've created, take a primary use case and write a few paragraphs of what tasks your persona needs to complete in order to fulfill their goal on your site. Literally walk through the process you're thinking about designing/developing on your site. This is a lot like writing a story, you should have fun with it, be specific, but have fun. I think you'll be surprised how much this "talking out loud" helps you visualize your design. This should really be done with all of your primary use cases. Anyway, there ya go. Hey nice post! I’d like to suggest another great tool for visualizing a design through your users eyes. This idea is inline with what you were saying about how just writing the spec can help generate new ideas

“As you write you’ll have a few Epiphanies…”

Write use case scenario’s! It’s really pretty simple and kinda fun. What you do is take a persona that you’ve created, take a primary use case and write a few paragraphs of what tasks your persona needs to complete in order to fulfill their goal on your site.

Literally walk through the process you’re thinking about designing/developing on your site. This is a lot like writing a story, you should have fun with it, be specific, but have fun. I think you’ll be surprised how much this “talking out loud” helps you visualize your design.

This should really be done with all of your primary use cases. Anyway, there ya go.

]]> By: analysis_manager http://www.mediacrumb.com/2007/05/17/why-write-a-functional-specification/#comment-2115 analysis_manager Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:36:07 +0000 http://www.mediacrumb.com/2007/05/17/why-write-a-functional-specification/#comment-2115 Hi Derrick, I could not agree with you more! The agile movement keeps on insisting that the code is the documentation and that functional specs are a waste of time. The reality is very different... Large projects fail from lack of upfront design and current documentation. - Adrian Hi Derrick,

I could not agree with you more! The agile movement keeps on insisting that the code is the documentation and that functional specs are a waste of time. The reality is very different… Large projects fail from lack of upfront design and current documentation.

- Adrian

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