The software is particularly nimble at synchronizing the requirements of architects and engineers via a bi-directional connection between dRofus and BIM modeling tools such as Archicad and Revit. This makes it an ideal tool for complex infrastructure and room element needs, as encountered in healthcare projects.
Founded in , Specsources is a pioneer of FFE specification writing software. A comprehensive data management and integration tool, Specsources is a virtual, dynamic, cloud-based Spec Book that enables collaboration within and among interior design firms. For a firm that hasn't yet waded into the pool of specification software, which tools would you suggest they start with?
The above-profiled software represents my favorites of these collaborative tools. My advice is to understand your spec writing needs, ask around, do some research, and drill down to the tool that will work best for you.
But by all means, ditch the Word docs, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations and enter the brave new world of spec writing software. Outside of managing his growing team of writers, editors, designers and If you have not been editing specifications for a while and mentored by a seasoned specifier, or have been certified in at least Documents Technology by the CSI - you probably shouldn't be messing around doing it.
The liability issues for improperly articulated specifications sections is simply too great to risk playing around with that area of our field. A project manual improperly referred to as the "spec book" is far more than the stuff you pick out for a project. That selection is part 2 of a technical specification, but the other two parts of a technical section are just as important. Project Delivery Systems vary a great deal these days, and the Division 01 Requirements dictate what is designated in your agreement.
However, if you are up to speed on those technical and legal nuances, and are looking at software packages, a couple of things that you should consider are: 1. Ease of use. Editors notes. The Deltek software is an edit-out software with multiple editing packages that can be purchased. So what you see on the page has all the selections available, and you delete what you don't want.
This is fine if you actually know what the references mean. The do offer a plug-in tool that is quite different than MasterWorks.
So you select what you want in a particular section instead of what you don't want. One of the things that you will get with the BSD software are some clues a green light on items that you should include, clues about things you should consider a yellow light you should consider, and a red light that tells you that you are in conflict with something you put somewhere else. This includes the Division 01 material which you should do first in any case. It also contains a fully articulated Design Criteria section Uniformat which is very useful in Schematic phase.
BIM integration requires purchasing Linkman. Smaller applications require less documentation but the process is the same. Some of these steps may require outside help — design and wireframe is a great example. And some projects may not require all of the steps, but the overarching goal is to get as much of the application documented and outlined before any code is written.
This helps reduce rework, bugs, errors and issues. To get an idea of what I mean by great spec documents, here are some excerpts from spec documents we created that are pretty good.
This is just a brief overview, but you should see the level of detail required. Most of these docments are many pages in length. For different parts of your application, documenting the process flow chart is important, which can be done in Visio by Microsoft, or any number of wire framing and documentation tools, like Balsamiq. Another good way to document feature requirements is listing them in excel as functional specifications.
If you still need help creating your specification document, come and see us at Mayven. As part of the development process we can help you create great documents that you can take to any developer and have a great result. The developer working from the software requirement specification has, ideally, all of their questions answered about the application and can start to develop.
Since this is a functional specfication that was client approved, they are building nothing less than what the customer wants. There should be nothing left to guess or interpret when the functional spec is completed. This is the brilliance of the software requirement specification. A software requirement specification is an objective that must be met. The customer or product team define most software requirements in functional terms, leaving design and implementation details to the developers.
They may specify price, performance, and reliability objectives in fine detail, along with some aspects of the user interface. Because there are so many types of requirements, the term requirement is odd because it describes the concept of an objective or goal or necessary characteristic, but at the same time the term also describes a kind of formal documentation, namely the requirements document.
Putting aside the particular document for now, Software requirements specifications are instructions describing what functions the software is supposed to provide, what characteristics the software is supposed to have, and what goals the software is supposed to meet or to enable users to meet. Project requirements provide an obvious tool for evaluating the quality of a project, because a final review should examine whether each requirement has been met.
Requirements tend to change through the course of a project, with the result that the product as delivered may not stick to the available Software requirements specifications — this is a disturbing part of the quality assurance process.
A software requirement specification is literally the conversation of a specific point. A software requirement specification document describes how something is supposed to be done. A specifications document may list out all of the possible error states for a certain form, along with all of the error messages that should be displayed.
The specifications may also describe the steps of any functional interaction, and the order in which they should be followed by the user. A requirements document, on the other hand, would state that the software must handle error states reasonably and effectively, and provide explicit feedback to the users.
The specifications show how to meet this requirement. Specifications may take several forms. They can be a straightforward listing of functional attributes, they can be diagrams or schematics of functional relationships or flow logic, or they can occupy some middle ground.
Software requirements specifications can also be in the form of prototypes, mockups, and models. Project specifications are much more important for determining the quality of the product. Every rule and functional relationship provides a test point. A disparity between the program and its specification is an error in the program if and only if the software requirement specification exists and is correct.
A program that follows a terrible specification perfectly is terrible, not perfect. The software requirement specification should be written by someone who is not involved in any other aspect of the project. You will want someone who is very familiar with GUI issues and web design, familiar enough with technology to know its limitations and capabilities, and someone who is a very skilled and a good writer.
While writing a spec, you will spend a great deal of time imagining how a user might use a certain feature and how they may navigate their way through the software. The following list describes the kinds of documents that belong to the body of requirements and specifications document.
These are not all required for every software project, but they do all provide important information to the developers, designers and project managers tasked with implementing a project and to the quality assurance people and testers responsible for evaluating the implementation of the project. User requirements typically describe the needs, goals, and tasks of the user. It is encouraged that any user requirements document define and describe the end-user, and that any measurements of quality or success be taken with respect to that end-user.
User requirements are usually defined after the completion of task analysis, the examination of the tasks and goals of the end-user. System requirements has two meanings. First, it can refer to the software requirements that describe the capabilities of the system with which the product will function. For example, the web site may need to run on an application server and be clustered. Second, it can refer to the requirements that describe the product itself, with the meaning that the product is a system.
There are two categories of system requirements. Software requirements specifications specify what the system must do. User requirements specify the acceptable level of user performance and satisfaction with the system.
Software requirements specifications describe what the software or web site should do by defining functions and high-level logic. If the user requirements are written for the requestor and not the end-user, the user requirements are combined with the Software requirements specifications. Functional specifications describe the necessary functions at the implementation level. These specifications are typically used to build the system exclusive of the GUI. With respect to a web site, a unit is the design for a specific page or category of page, and the software requirement specification would detail the functional elements of that page or page type.
For example, the design for the page may require the following functions: shopping cart page, opt-out email section, context-sensitive navigation elements.
A component is a set of page states or closely related forms of a page. For example, a component might include a submission page, and the acknowledgement page. Diagram the organization of the information i. Designing flowcharts can be very handy when trying to work through a lot of information. Also include the navigational path through the information on this diagram. Visio is an awesome tool for developing technical diagrams and flow charts such as these.
Create a prototype A prototype of a web application is a set of static html pages put together to show the key pages of the application and the GUI. It allows the software requirement specification writer to have something close to a working model to test their ideas out on, start focusing on the layout, and begin gathering input about the look and feel. In the iterative process, it helps to have this grand view look at a potential finished product while also seeing how the components of the system affect the overall product.
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