Software specifications

I have finally made a strong effort to make a fairly comprehensive system
specification for my product, which includes some description of the
hardware, but is mostly for the software, which is written in Delphi. I had
started this project essentially with a mental image of its design, as well
as the original version which was an MS-DOS based console application
written in Turbo C and Borland C about 12 years ago. As the new Windows
project grew in complexity, I realized I would be better off with a
specification to work with, and I wrote a preliminary draft about a year
ago, after the program was essentially working but without some of the
extras now in place. Now that I am rewriting much of it in light of what I
have learned recently, I decided I needed a more detailed spec, so I wrote
it. It still needs work, but you can look at the Word document on
www.Ortmaster.com.

I have been frustrated in this project because my software and hardware is
intended to work with a separate application, called TCC, which is
essentially a database program that verifies the results I furnish to it in
a data file. Unfortunately, the original programmer on the project chose
Visual Basic .NET, and he put together essentially an ugly shell of a
program over the period of about a year and then quit. It was taken over by
another programmer who has been my mentor in Delphi, but also adept at VB.
However, the required bug fixes and improvements in that program have been
very slow, and I have begged the distributor of the combined products for a
software specification, and here is what he told me.

"There will be no help or software spec written until we are done, if things
change we may need to rewrite them, why waste time."

The problem is that he has a certain image in mind, and also a previous
simple program he wrote in antique visual Basic for MSDOS, but the
programmer is not familiar with this testing, but I am not supposed to make
suggestions until he is "done". I found 35 or so problems in the software
release I got about 3 weeks ago, and I have seen nothing since then. I could
also vent a bit about the distributor's viewpoints about keeping the
software simple and minimizing keystrokes or mouse clicks by eliminating a
simple message box warning that data was not saved. Apparently, one mouse
click was more important than possibly losing 15 minutes worth of test
results. He looked at it as a time-wasting annoyance in case the technician
really wanted to repeat the test.

Anyway, I seem to be ranting, but I wanted your opinions and personal
experiences with software specifications. I read a number of good articles
by Joel Spolsky (www.JoelOnSoftware.com), and I agree with much of his
advice. I'm afraid this project is doomed to failure. Customers are asking
me when it will be ready, as they are struggling with old MSDOS software
that gets data through the printer port and won't run on Windows. I know I
could do the entire database project (in Delphi) myself, even having to
learn all about the database functions, in a couple of months or so, from
scratch, but I don't have that option and I might be overestimating my
ability.

Thanks for listening!
--
Paul E. Schoen, President
P S Technology, Inc.
Cockeysville, MD
www.pstech-inc.com


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