[prog] Passing data between modules

[Jimen Ching]

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003, Jacinta Richardson wrote:
>1.  Software Requirements Specification (IEEE Std 830)
>	(see also IEEE Std 1233, Guide to Preparing System Requirements
>Specification)
>2.  Software Architectural Design (IEEE Std 1471-2000)
>	(see also IEEE Std 1016-1998, Recommended Practice for Software
>Design Descriptions)
>3.  Software Detailed Design (IEEE Std 1016-1998)
>4.  Software Test and Integration Plan (IEEE Std 0829-1998)

What a coincedence.  My employer has just started a new project where
we've started using these standard formats extensively.  Management
experienced enough problems from prior projects which lacked requirement
and design documents, that they saw fit to see us use more formal
processes.

What I would like to know is, are there any anecdotes that show these
documents actually improve the development process?  One of the problems
I'm beginning to see is that these documents assume the problem domain is
well understood.  This is fine, if it was true.  But my employer is in the
research field.  Which implies that not everything is well well
understood.  How effective is a requirements specification if the
requirement is not well understood?

Can you share some of your experiences with these standard document
formats?

Thanks...

--jc
-- 
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org