I. M. Wright's "Hard Code"

Chapter 3. Inefficiency Eradicated

In this chapter:

July 1, 2001: "Late specs: Fact of life or genetic defect?"

June 1, 2002: "Idle hands"

June 1, 2004: "The day we met"

July 1, 2006: "Stop writing specs, co-located feature crews"

February 1, 2007: "Bad specs: Who is to blame?"

As I described in October 1, 2004: "Lean: More than good pastrami" in Chapter 2, waste and evil are close companions in the work environment. Nowhere is that more evident than in group communications, a popular target of these columns, or in the proper use of unstructured time between projects. These areas affect whole teams, not just individuals, so their impact is multiplied.

Specification documents (specs) and meetings hold a special place of honor in my museum of horrors. ...