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Do engineering specifications use the same center embedded sentences as legal documents? IETF defines may, must, shall, etc. in every document but doesn't use
by unethical_ban 2y ago
Do engineering specifications use the same center embedded sentences as legal documents?
IETF defines may, must, shall, etc. in every document but doesn't use the same format as law.
- rbanffy 2y agoLaw and technical standards are two places where language must be extremely precise to avoid misinterpretation. And destroying Mars probes because of mismatched units.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y agoI have two different but reinforcing memories that support this. 1) I remember being in a Requirements Review meeting and spending an entire hour debating the meaning of a word. Don't remember the word, but it was something like "includes". 2) I separately remember being in a Requirements review for a feature that concluded successfully. Then later in a Design Review for that feature. And after that, Code and Unit Test reviews of the same feature. Then, months later, the feature was presented to the person who asked for it in the first place and then said, "that's not what I wanted. I wanted xxx instead." Yes, this person was at the Requirements and Design reviews!
- rbanffy 2y agoOh… also detectives. My colleagues say I don’t interview users. They say I interrogate them.
- unethical_ban 2y agoAgreed. My point is that engineering documents read differently than legal documents, but have the same necessity for precision.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]