Home > Articles > Software Development & Management > Management: Lifecycle, Project, Team

This chapter is from the book

2.3 The Functional Specification

After the Vision Document is approved, effort typically shifts to production of the Functional Specification. Some companies create separate marketing and technical requirements documents, but however it is packaged we will call it a Functional Specification here to avoid getting lost in terminology.

Flashback—VB Database Class

I have taught a class on Visual Basic database programming for many years. As part of that class, my students complete a personal class project. Their first assignment is to produce a simple one-page Vision Document/Functional Specification of their project. I tell them to simply explain in plain English what their planned programs will do. You'd think it would be easy points.

Despite the apparent simplicity of the assignment, I get a tremendous variety in content, most of which is not at all useful. Their planning documents are littered with sparse, overly general, unnecessarily detailed, or meaningless boilerplate. Although I expressly tell them not to dwell on implementation aspects such as database structure because that is documented in the next lesson, most do so anyway. Most of the students do not communicate effectively and do not seem to consider the needs of the reader.

At one point I became so frustrated that I considered discontinuing this assignment. Then I decided that the fact that students have so many problems with it is the best reason to continue to assign it. Usually out of a class of 24, there will be two or three reasonably clear specifications that actually do give the reader some useful insight into what their project will do. I typically read one or two of those to illustrate an effective specification and point out what the student did right.

The Functional Specification is the cornerstone of software planning. It embodies all of the business requirements, software requirements, and product specifications. The intent is to provide a complete, self-contained master plan of what will be produced. Normally, it is hoped that by the time this document is complete, all questions have been answered and the solution has been fully designed on paper. With the Functional Specification in hand, many managers and planners feel that they should be able to hand it to any development team and lock them in isolation until the system is ready for deployment.

We often spend as much time preparing this document as we do developing the application it represents. This entails a tremendous expenditure of time, effort, and resources. The amazing thing is that in the end, no working code is actually produced. That is not to say it has no value, but it will not process one transaction, send one byte of data to a hardware controller, or accept one character of user input.

Certainly one would argue that the Functional Specification pays for itself ten times over by preventing errors and inefficiency during development. This is the basic assumption implicit in most planning literature. That may be true when the Functional Specification is appropriate for the project it represents. However, all of the reported benefits of a Functional Specification do not normally consider its quality. They do not consider the cost and risk of a poor Functional Specification.

The reality is that many Functional Specifications are quite poor and fail to produce a fraction of their expected benefits. In practice, we are fortunate when developers can find anything of value in a Functional Specification. Often it is highly debatable as to whether these documents are worth the effort that was put into them.

At that point in their studies, my students should not be expected to know how to write an effective planning document. However, the same degree of variation in content and quality exists in most commercial Functional Specifications. These documents come from professionals who should be skilled in this work. Even though the real-world specifications get bigger and take longer to produce, they don't necessarily get better. If anything, the authors of commercial specifications have even less ability to produce a useful specification than my students, relative to the scope of their tasks.

Most commercial-quality specifications suffer from the same fundamental problems as the student specifications, except on a larger scale. They are verbose and complex, they lack cohesiveness, and they include a great deal of extraneous information. If anything, the problems are magnified because of the greater level of scope, detail, and interdependency required in a commercial application.

Consequently, as with the Vision Document, the Functional Specification does not get utilized as effectively as the planners might imagine or hope. In far too many projects, the developers barely look at the specification. When they do consult it, they typically absorb only the few discrete sections that are useful and then ignore the rest. Usually the only parts of the specification that have much value are the screen mock-ups or prototypes. Even these mock-ups are often created without considering the needs of the developers. The rest of the information is frequently too sparse, disorganized, inconsistent, and incomplete to be of much value.

Developers typically take what they can from the specification, and then go back to the client experts for additional information. From the developer's perspective, this is far more efficient and accurate then trying to glean more information from the specification. From the management and client perspectives, this is frustrating and redundant. Even worse, it opens the possibility of scope creep.

The term scope creep describes the phenomenon in which features are added or changed after the specification is finalized so that they increase the time required to deliver the product.

Planners probably spent many months working on the Functional Specification in an effort to anticipate and provide the developers with all the information they need to produce the product. They are understandably frustrated and bewildered when the developers never seem to use it effectively. Management concludes that greater control is needed to force those developers to adhere more rigidly to the specification.

As with the Vision Document, the reason that these documents are so out of touch with the needs of development is that the planners probably never actually asked their developers in advance what they need and how to present it. Developers were handed a document that did not seem to be prepared specifically for them. And in truth it probably was not. It was probably prepared first and foremost to satisfy the very different expectations of management and client.

What we end up with is a highly inefficient planning process that devours resources and doesn't meet the needs of the developers in the end. The best way to produce an effective specification that serves developers is to go direct to blueprint9 and use the Software Blueprinter application10 or something like it to produce a developer-oriented specification as the planning process progresses.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020