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 Thursday, February 01, 2007 |
| On Product Specification, Imagination, Communication |
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 On the way to work this morning I worked out this lab note in my mind. I was thinking about why I, and most engineers and software people, find engineering and software design so interesting. The most interesting part is imagining a product, and then seeing it become real.
I think we all love to imagine from when we are very little. I remember when I was little I would play army with my brother Michael. When we would imagine and play and I was in a totally different place. The difference between then and now is that now my imagination needs to be more integrated with reality and practicality. A good imagination is of immense benefit to an engineer or programmer.
I like to imagine what a product could be. I like to imagine different ways of expressing the product. I like to imagine, and this is important, all the steps involved in using the product. How I am opening the package, and installing or plugging it in. I imagine others using the product. I imagine me telling someone what the product is or does. Sometimes the product has popped up in my dreams.
I do not have the luxury of free reign in my product design for work. I design products for people and companies. I need to obey the laws of physics. I need to make money to pay my families bills. Its reality. Therefore my product (and imagination) has design constraints.
The final part of this fun imagination ride is communicating what is in my mind to other people. The only way to make the product become real is to communicate it to other people, unless you want to do everything yourself. Doing everything yourself is viable for a few people. The reality is that you and me will be working with co-workers, clients, and/or sub-contractors on a product as part of a larger project that is multi-disciplined.
That is why a product specification is so important. It is a communication as to all the details that will make up the product. It should leave no detail uncovered, you never know how it will turn out otherwise. The product specification communicates to the design team, clients, management, marketing and salespeople. It communicates to quality control and manufacturing what you plan to do. It is important that you paint a picture in peoples head of what is in your head. Everyone needs to have the same target.
The product specification usually is a team effort. Individuals on the engineering team are responsible for different aspects of the spec, but usually one person is the 'keeper of the spec'. When I have written product specifications the mere act of doing so and organizing my thoughts always leads me to new views of the products and to fill in details the team did not think of otherwise.
The product spec is also important because in design and engineering it is very difficult to hit a moving target. If a spec is complete and your client comes to you halfway through the project with a major change you both know what the initial agreement was with good product spec. Finally, the product specification will be used to define the scope of the engineering effort. Schedules, milestones and deliverables will be based upon the scope of the project.
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admin4 at 8:24 AM |
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