I’ve worked on some really funny projects where the functionality list goes crazy once the budget is signed off. We’ve costed a detailed spec, gone round everyone carefully explaining it and got the budget approved on time. Then, as if from no where, new functionality and extra bits start to seep into the requirements lists from all directions.
‘The account team were talking in the pub last night and decided China is the next big thing. We need the new site in Mandarin and Cantonese as well.‘
‘The marketing manager’s daughter saw a cool animated chatroom thing on a Japanese website and he wants one on the site by Friday. He’s got a press release going out on this tomorrow‘.
You know the kinda thing, crazy scope creep while the budget gathers dust in a drawer. When you’ve been through the ‘they want WHAT ?!‘ thing a few times you start to see the funny side.
Anyway, the general rule when developing software, or for that matter any application, is always prioritise those feature requirements….
Joel Spolsky over at Joel on Software has written a great piece on this called, Set Your Priorities. Well worth a read. Here’s an extract:
“Custom development is that murky world where a customer tells you what to build, and you say, ‘are you sure?’ and they say yes, and you make an absolutely beautiful spec, and say, ‘is this what you want?’ and they say yes, and you make them sign the spec in indelible ink, nay, blood, and they do, and then you build that thing they signed off on, promptly, precisely and exactly, and they see it and they are horrified and shocked, and you spend the rest of the week reading up on whether your E&O insurance is going to cover the legal fees for the lawsuit you’ve gotten yourself into or merely the settlement cost. Or, if you’re really lucky, the customer will smile wanly and put your code in a drawer and never use it again and never call you back.”
So yeah... 