Do we need functional specs anyway?
Ian Landman noted two very different opinions on the need for functional specifications:
“Don’t write a functional specifications document. Why? Well, there is nothing functional about a functional specifications document.” (Jason Fried)
versus
“Software engineers who dive into code without writing a spec tend to think they’re cool gunslingers, shooting from the hip. They’re not. They are terribly unproductive….” (Joel Spolsky)
A discussion follows. Even though, as teacher of the course “Requirements Management with Use Cases”, I prefer the second opinion, Jason still makes some points: don’t make a design for the wrong reasons.