Importance of requirement specification and skill gaps in outsourcing web application

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Lack of proper requirement specification and a gap in development skills are two reasons for web application development failure. The software development team needs to understand the importance of software specification rather than finding the technology stack. You - a product owner - could start writing the project summary, but your team should explore the hidden or gray areas in it.

All successful products have one thing in common that is precisely written requirement specifications.

I started software programming in 2006, and I have written all sorts of applications; small command-line utility programs, small website applications, Software-as-a-service (SAAS) applications, and web applications. And I delivered some successful applications, and a few failed. And both helped me to understand the core of software engineering – I am a Computer science and engineering graduate. 

The requirement specification gives you a clear picture of what a software development team needs to develop. And then, it can start thinking about the development stack – tools, languages, and platforms - and the skill gaps.

Nowadays, software development is more complex, and the clients do not have time to wait. They want completed software within the shortest amount of time. And it creates more problems.

Lack of precise requirement specification

A software product consists of different features – some are important, and some are supportive. And, if these features are not defined precisely, then the software architect could not design the solution, and the development team could not write the proper source code. 

Following is an example of what a precise feature requirement and an ambiguous feature requirement look;

Ambiguous feature requirement: 

The registered user can upload a file into the web application.

Precise feature requirement:

The registered user can upload a file in the web application as follow;

  1. He should log in to the web application.
  2. He can upload only PDF document files.
  3. He can upload only one file at a time.
  4. The file size should be less than 1 MB.
  5. The web application stores the file in the document folder.
  6. The web application renames the file with the current timestamp – Unix format.
  7. The web application does not verify the duplicate file. It is a user's responsibility to upload a unique file.

You see the differences. The precise requirement has clear information compared to the ambiguous. 

Precise requirement gives you two benefits;

  1. Your software development team can understand the requirement specification with no assumptions.
  2. Your software development team can estimate efforts precisely.

If you give me ambiguous requirements then, the chances of failure are higher. And when we create precise requirement specifications, I could easily estimate the efforts. And we can lower the failure chance.

In my beginning years of programming, I was trapped in ambiguous requirements and invested more time fixing the features than creating new solutions.

When I founded my outsourcing software development company, I had a clear mindset. And I never took any requirement casually. I always try to get more information from my clients than assuming the flow of the feature.

Development skill gaps

The second reason for software project failure is gaps in development skills. And the development team can not find differences in the skills when given ambiguous requirements. And that is one of the reasons for creating precise requirement specifications.

For example; You have the following requirement from your client.

The web application should not render the whole page after each user action. Instead, it should fetch the content and change the DOM.

After reviewing the above statement, you find that your development team needs the knowledge of single-page application development and its standards.  

You - as a product owner - could do nothing here except finding the right outsourcing development team. 

But, you - as a development team leader - could fill the gap. You could find the skill gaps after reviewing the precise requirement specifications and team skill matrix. Then, you could schedule the development team learning plans.

The development team could not produce the quality output if it does not have the proper skill. And therefore, you should give importance to the development team learning.

The core of a software development profession is to convert ideas into actual products. And like each engineering discipline, it starts with exploring the product requirement in detail. You can not start building the bridge without detailing the requirements, and you need to give proper time for planning and execution.

The same thing applies to any software development – web applications, desktop applications, or others. You need to understand the product detail carefully, and you need to give proper time for planning and execution.

But, many people start software development from a single statement.