Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

re: Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

Alun Jones — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:36:36 GMT

I think the story has a broader lesson - that we should never implement blindly exactly what we are asked. If there is possible ambiguity in the specification, we should ask for a clarification, ideally from the specification's author. Mentor should teach mentee that this is an example of when you should re-state the requirement and say "is this what you mean to ask for?"

If the pedant arises, then out-pedant him. A program playing back a sound file is not "saying" anything - there are no lips to flap or vocal chords vibrating. The speech is not generated from the text, or from the concept behind the text.

re: Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

Norman Diamond — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:45:43 GMT

I say "say", you say "c'est", he says "生", she calls the whole thing "off".

re: Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

jared — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:26:51 GMT

Given the context of this story, "say" could be taken as synonymous to "print", "put" or "output". But, since VS enables developers to generate speech from text, I think it was perfectly acceptable for the developer to Interpret "say" as: generate audible speech.

I think this story also provides an interesting example of what happens when the person who writes the requirements is not the person who writes the code. While this is pretty typical in larger projects, it does illustrate the potential communication disconnect that increases in relation to the number of people on the project.

re: Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

Tanveer Badar — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:44:30 GMT

English is my second language too. But I never doubted about what you meant before I read that you had to put on head phones because you wrote 'say'.

The newbie must be a joker because that 'say' meant print. And this print means outputs to display device. :)

Specification should leave no room for interpretation

Steven Yong's Weblog — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:01:32 GMT

I remember once I requested a business analyst to insert the rules of email address validation into the functional design specification and the response I got was "I think this should be a well-known thing that not required to be stated down.&quot

re: Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

Norman Diamond — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:49:37 GMT

"tells you something about English not being my first language"

Your use of the word "say" was correct idiomatic English. A computer pedant can pick on it the way the SDET did, but then you can ask about the word "print", which is correct idiomatic compuglish for "output" or "display"... except for "sprintf" which doesn't print or output or display.

Now if one of the SDET's favourite fields was computerized speech, or if they'd been working on it recently, or if their fluency in English or compuglish is lower than yours, then the misunderstanding is understandable. Otherwise they were being a pedant or a joker.

Of course it's different when we're talking to computers or documenting how to talk to computers. Then we'd better say what each word really does. Though of course our talking or saying can be accomplished by printing or displaying.

'it reminds me of the Microsoft "You're in a helicopter" joke...'

That's the IBM "You're in a helicopter" joke. The joke is older than Microsoft.

re: Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

James S. — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:01:53 GMT

Well, I hope the SDET learnt some lessons about customer requirements too... they don't always ask for what they want, and it's important to establish the underling problems driving their requirements instead of simply meeting their specification.

It's certainly a cute story, but it reminds me of the Microsoft "You're in a helicopter" joke...

Computers » Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications

Computers » Hello World? Quick Advice On Design Specifications — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:47:54 GMT

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