[Image Processing Engineer Column] The Long and Short of Specification Decisions
アポロ精工 アポロ精工 新横浜オフィス（旧ケーアイテクノロジー/旧市川ソフトラボラトリー）
I used to believe that in order to develop something, it was ideal to firmly establish the "specifications" before the design phase. However, I learned from a client company that passionately advocates the policy of "not strictly defining specifications leads to better outcomes." Let me introduce the pros and cons of each approach. The advantage of "defining specifications" is that during the process of setting specifications, trade-offs are made, allowing for an optimal approach to the objectives. There may be moments of uncertainty during design or debugging, but if the initial specifications are clearly defined, there will be no deviations. The advantage of "not defining specifications" is that if new ideas emerge during development, the specifications can be flexibly adjusted, leading to the creation of "better products." Until I understood this, I thought, "Doesn't that lead to unnecessary costs?" I used to think, "If you try to define the specifications in detail, won't that delay the start?" However, after the completion of that project, a new product was developed that incorporated convenient features that were not recognized at the start. This became an episode that prompted me to always want to remain flexible. *News is distributed through our company newsletter.
Related product information
