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Subject:RE: use cases - what are they good for From:"Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:02:50 -0000
> Exactly. One of our biggest problems is that developers specifications are
> generally not thorough enough.
>
I've found that with national and international standards as well. There are
two problems that I used to come up against when I worked in this field.
1. The people on the committees were often not terribly good at writing
unambiguous technical English, even though some were undoubtedly leading
experts in their field technically.
2. There was often a temptation to fudge an issue by agreeing a form of
words which different people could interpret in different ways.
Unfortunately, such varying interpretations made it possible to design two
pieces of equiment supposedly both conforming to the same standard, but
which were unable to communicate with each other because the two
manufacturers had a different understanding of the requirements.
I would insist whenever possible that the standard was clear and
unambiguous. This sometimes made me unpopular because it meant that everyone
else had to work harded at coming to an agreeement.
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