> Software Design Intent document That's great. But having written it doesn't mean that everyone has read it. And not everyone who has read it will agree with

> Software Design Intent document That's great. But having written it doesn't mean that everyone has read it. And not everyone who has read it will agree with it. Or maybe the person who you thought would champion it has left the company. Or maybe the world has changed since you wrote it. You've probably heard the expression "no business plan survives first contact with customers." A corollary, in anything but an extremely top-down organization, is that version 1 of your planning doc is unlikely to perfectly describe the final product. > a) the question asker knows better, and b) that no one bothered to think of any of this to begin with Eh, that's assuming a fair amount of antagonism on both sides. Most people are reasonable and rational, and after the initial "WTF? Are you crazy?" handshaking, everyone can get on the same page. But that process takes time. If your first contact with a downstream person/team/group is right before your 1.0 is supposed to ship, then you're more likely to treat them as a roadblock. If you instead involve them early, get the WTF moments out of the way, and take the time to develop a relationship, then you've turned a potential roadblock into a stakeholder and advocate, and your SDI becomes a true representation of consensus, rather than a bludgeon.