Software technical specification

Technical specs have immense benefits to everyone involved in a project: the engineers who write them, the teams that use them, even the projects that are designed off of them.

Here are some reasons why you should write one. By writing a technical spec, engineers are forced to examine a problem before going straight into code, where they may overlook some aspect of the solution. Technical specs, because they are a thorough view of the proposed solution, they also serve as documentation for the project, both for the implementation phase and after, to communicate your accomplishments on the project. With this well-thought out solution, your technical spec saves you from repeatedly explaining your design to multiple teammates and stakeholders.

They may catch exceptional cases of the solution that you may have neglected, reducing your liability. The more eyes you have on your spec, the better. A technical spec is a straightforward and efficient way to communicate project design ideas between a team and other stakeholders. The whole team can collaboratively solve a problem and create a solution. As more teammates and stakeholders contribute to a spec, it makes them more invested in the project and encourages them to take ownership and responsibility for it.

With everyone on the same page, it limits complications that may arise from overlapping work. Newer teammates unfamiliar with the project can onboard themselves and contribute to the implementation earlier. Investing in a technical spec ultimately results in a superior product.

Since the team is aligned and in agreement on what needs to be done through the spec, big projects can progress faster. A spec is essential in managing complexity and preventing scope and feature creep by setting project limits. It sets priorities thereby making sure that only the most impactful and urgent parts of a project go out first.

Post implementation, it helps resolve problems that cropped up within the project, as well as provide insight in retrospectives and postmortems. The best planned specs serve as a great guide for measuring success and return on investment of engineering time.

Gather the existing information in the problem domain before getting started. With this knowledge of the problem history, try to state the problem in detail and brainstorm all kinds of solutions you may think might resolve it.

Pick the most reasonable solution out of all the options you have come up with. Invite them to a meeting and explain the problem and the solution you picked. Lay out your ideas and thought process and try to persuade them that your solution is the most appropriate.

Gather their feedback and ask them to be a reviewer for your technical spec. Block off time in your calendar to write the first draft of the technical spec. Usea collaborative document editor that your whole team has access to. Get a technical spec template see below and write a rough draft. There are a wide range of problems being solved by a vast number of companies today. Each organization is distinct and creates its own unique engineering culture. As a result, technical specs may not be standard even within companies, divisions, teams, and even among engineers on the same team.

Every solution has different needs and you should tailor your technical spec based on the project. You do not need to include all the sections mentioned below. Select the sections that work for your design and forego the rest.

From my experience, there are seven essential parts of a technical spec: front matter, introduction, solutions, further considerations, success evaluation, work, deliberation, and end matter. Go through your draft as if you were an independent reviewer. Ask yourself what parts of the design are unclear and you are uncertain about. Modify your draft to include these issues. Review the draft a second time as if you were tasked to implement the design just based on the technical spec alone.

Make sure the spec is a clear enough implementation guideline that the team can work on if you are unavailable. If you have doubts about the solution and would like to test it out just to make sure it works, create a simple prototype to prove your concept. Address all comments, questions, and suggestions as soon as possible. Set deadlines to do this for every issue. Schedule meetings to talk through issues that the team is divided on or is having unusually lengthy discussions about on the document.

If the team fails to agree on an issue even after having in-person meetings to hash them out, make the final call on it as the buck stops with you. Update the document with any changes in the design, schedule, work estimates, scope, etc. Writing test specs can be an impactful way to guarantee that your project will be successful.

A little planning and a little forethought can make the actual implementation of a project a whole lot easier. Great article. It summarized all the reasearch I had to do months ago in a single page! It will help a lot.

I had the same exact frustrating problem earlier. Having a template definitely helps out a bunch. I am a civil engineer and you just helped a great deal. Some people cannot explain the thought process behind their good writing so it is difficult to learn from them.

Thank you. Can I translate this article, please? I am the editor of InfoQ China. I think your article, is really great and will help Chinese readers learn how to write technical specifications. By the way, InfoQ China is a formal media organization, we strictly follow copyright requirements, and all translations we publish will include the original information.

I respect your opinion and abandon the plan to translate. Misunderstandings during this phase cause lots of delays and costs later during the project on the one hand. The less devotion you put in describing the idea to your coder, the less devotion the coder will have working on this project. Every software project manager could write a book on how important and time consuming it is to bring a coder into a fresh project.

Therefore, many software project managers tend to stick to the team they have been working together with for years or even decades. Even so, some coders may not possess the full requirements for a certain project; software project managers tend to work with coders whom they get along with, rather than looking out for new experts as the introduction phase is so burdensome. From my personal experience, I know so many people who have been working with lousy coders due to the fact that it has been easier to communicate as they have been working for them for so long.

For all you know, you can just pass the Tech Spec to 10 different coders and see which one will take the job. When a coder holds the Tech Specs in their hand, they already know what the project is all about. The next thing you have to do is just to answer some of the questions that might have appeared — and the rest you just talk about the weather. Because by then, the Tech Specs would have taken care of the rest.

This process makes you independent from the programmer. You can also bring in new coders into the project. Conclusion Who does not want a web or software project that has few obstacles, less communication channels, costs less, is not based on compromises, and also provides an ideal result? What seems like an impossibility can be realized through technical specifications. The ability to create Tech Specs requires years of software engineering knowledge. Mostly in small organizations like smaller web or software development agencies, Tech Specs tend not to be used.

Every web or software project at blue media, no matter how small, is always supervised with Tech Specs. After more than 22 years of software development, we have some knowledge in our repertoire that sets us apart from other providers.

He has been involved in developing custom SEO tools, large website and software projects. He is the founder of blue media. Image Sliders can be quite hurtful for your SEO and the overall user experience. Read why Image Sliders are extinct as of This technical specifications document template is designed to help you create a detailed report for IT projects, which could include addressing infrastructure issues, system updates, and other technical projects.

The template provides sections for including a project overview, specifications and requirements, resource needs, and more. This Excel template has a simple layout that can easily be edited to suit your project. Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform that allows teams and organizations to plan projects, streamline operations, and scale software development efforts.

See Smartsheet in action. Watch a demo. List requirements for a website project, including those related to navigation, content management, design, security, and more. The template provides room for detailed comments, and a column for assigning a tracking number to each requirement.

To expand the template and include more requirements, simply copy and paste the number of sections needed. Use this technical requirement document template for any project.

It provides a basic outline to work from with an easy-to-read format. The software is particularly nimble at synchronizing the requirements of architects and engineers via a bi-directional connection between dRofus and BIM modeling tools such as Archicad and Revit.

This makes it an ideal tool for complex infrastructure and room element needs, as encountered in healthcare projects. Founded in , Specsources is a pioneer of FFE specification writing software. A comprehensive data management and integration tool, Specsources is a virtual, dynamic, cloud-based Spec Book that enables collaboration within and among interior design firms. For a firm that hasn't yet waded into the pool of specification software, which tools would you suggest they start with?

The above-profiled software represents my favorites of these collaborative tools. My advice is to understand your spec writing needs, ask around, do some research, and drill down to the tool that will work best for you.

But by all means, ditch the Word docs, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations and enter the brave new world of spec writing software.

Outside of managing his growing team of writers, editors, designers and If you have not been editing specifications for a while and mentored by a seasoned specifier, or have been certified in at least Documents Technology by the CSI - you probably shouldn't be messing around doing it.

The liability issues for improperly articulated specifications sections is simply too great to risk playing around with that area of our field. A project manual improperly referred to as the "spec book" is far more than the stuff you pick out for a project. That selection is part 2 of a technical specification, but the other two parts of a technical section are just as important.

Project Delivery Systems vary a great deal these days, and the Division 01 Requirements dictate what is designated in your agreement. However, if you are up to speed on those technical and legal nuances, and are looking at software packages, a couple of things that you should consider are: 1.

Ease of use. Editors notes. The Deltek software is an edit-out software with multiple editing packages that can be purchased. So what you see on the page has all the selections available, and you delete what you don't want. This is fine if you actually know what the references mean.