What is Specification in Business? Definition

Do not put a feature into a specification without the corresponding test cases. Encourage the development of proofs of concept implementations of the technology. Use easy-to-understand narrative to describe situations that are applicable to the specification. WCAG 1.0 has an extensive and complete Introduction, but no scope.

For example, a design specification might include the dimensions of a bottle cap. To take control of specifications, companies need a single source of truth that can be accessed by stakeholders across and outside of their organization. This need has led to a rise of a new category of software – specification management.

The English version of this specification is the only normative version. A good specification should be clear, unambiguous and complete. It should also be achievable, meaning it is realistic for the supplier to meet. This can sometimes be a challenge, as the customer may not have a good understanding of what is possible or what it will take to meet their needs.

The deliverables section should describe what will be delivered to the customer once the requirements have been met. Finally, the acceptance criteria section should list the criteria that must be met in order for the customer to accept the deliverables. In some cases, such as with software development projects, both types of specifications may be needed. The process of writing a specification can help to clarify the requirements and ensure that everyone involved has a common understanding of what is required.

definition of specification

Hurt interoperability by increasing the likelihood of incompatible implementations. Complicate conformance by creating the need to account for more interrelationships with other subdivisions and variability (e.g., extensibility). Provide names for feature bundles, facilitating automated http://leiva.ru/naucili637.htm negotiation between sending and receiving products. Create a template for new feature proposals that includes a section for adding test assertions. If implementers do not have the same understanding of what is required, interoperability is likely to suffer in the end.

Origin of Specification

For example, a product design specification might include the color of the product. Globalization, SKU proliferation, and changing consumer tastes have led to an explosion of technical specifications. For example, it was easy when a soda company had one bottle and one can and one label to manage.

Variability in Specifications models how design decisions affecting conformance change the interoperability landscape for a specification. This document is organized into a series of guidelines such as Specifying Conformance and Managing Variability. Each of these guidelines present and explain Requirements and Good Practices. Techniques and Examples accompany each Requirement and Good Practice. The techniques illustrate basic questions or methods to help realize the Requirement/Good Practice and produce specification text. The examples are explanations or extractions from existing W3C specifications that specifically illustrate the point made in the Requirement/Good Practice.

definition of specification

Reference a non-normative tutorial document that includes informative explanation of concepts, behavior, or functionality. It is critical to convey what the specification is about by describing its intent and applicability. As the specification develops, it is a good idea to revisit the scope to make sure it still reflects the intent of the specification or if it needs to be modified. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 provides a checklist of checkpoints which helps the implementer to verify the accessibility of HTML documents. WCAG 1.0 is a good example of a specification explaining how to make a conformance claim depending on the degree of conformance. Having a framework, by which to make conformance claims for a particular usage of the technology, minimizes confusion by people who are interested in such claims.

Essential Components of Web Accessibility and the WAI home page are helpful starting points. Some suggestions on user interface formats are in the Working Draft XML Accessibility Guidelines . For each deprecated feature, give one or more examples showing the old way and the new way.

The more that the specification work is organized, the more chances there are to move smoothly across W3C process, and to have a better final product. Setting up an internal publication/review process avoids recurrent errors in the document and allows wider participation in the editorial work, making it possible to develop the specification faster. The HTTP 1.1 specification defines a set of well-known errors, standardized through their error codes. Try to limit the number of types of error defined by the specification. Also, processing errors of the same kind in the same way allows for greater interoperability. The conformance section of HTML 4.01 defines deprecation and what user agents should do.

Explore More Specification Management Content

Technically, Class 3 e-bikes should not have a throttle; those are part of the Class 2 specification, which limits the maximum speed to 20 mph (32 km/hr). The Vinfast VF 8 has a potent specification, including an 82kWh battery, up to 402hp and 0-62mph in as little as 5.5 seconds. Pipeline systems fully contained within the Midwest and refineries primarily serving the region would generally shift to the new specification, according to an ICF analysis seen by Bloomberg News. Butler was sentenced after pleading guilty on Jan. 23 to murder with a gun specification and tampering with evidence. Super Fast Charging relies on a USB Power Delivery specification called PPS. Namespaces in XML 1.1 , Section 2.2.2 Use of IRIs as Namespace Names discusses the deprecation of relative IRI references, although the information is difficult to find.

More generally, normative references might help readers understand where the technology is coming from and therefore how to use it in combination with other technologies they may already know. The OWL Working Group synchronized the publication of their specification and the publication of the OWL Test Cases [OWL-TEST]. They even went a bit further by making the test case the necessary step to develop a feature with its requirements. It is up to the Working Group to determine the best way to illustrate the scope and other parts of the specification. Typically, the nature of the specification influences the type of examples, uses cases, graphics, etc. that make sense. Give precise instructions for how the ICS becomes part of the conformance claim.

Warn extension creators to create extensions that do not interfere with conformance. OWL Reference [OWL-REF] is a vocabulary extension of RDF Semantics (See section 6 in [RDF-MT]). OWL imposes additional semantic conditions on RDF called semantic extensions of RDF.

definition of specification

Apply the valuable insights discovered during user testing to revise your product spec. When you feel confident about the adjustments, send your product specifications to the development team to begin building the product. Usually,specifications.a detailed description or assessment of requirements, dimensions, materials, etc., as of a proposed building, machine, bridge, etc. A detailed description of requirements, dimensions, materials, etc., as of a proposed building. However, reaching those goals starts with robust specification data management. Specifications require thoroughly documented, written statements mapping exactly what you want out of the production cycle.

Words nearby specification

Provide non-normative references to resources such as books, specification annotation, test sets. These references provide annotations to the specification, pictorial illustrations, and explanations of specification rules. The key is to communicate to the reader what conformance to the specification is all about. The model provides a framework for implementers, describes what they need to build in order to conform, and explains the different ways that they could claim conformance. It provides users and customers with a basis on which to express their requirements.

For each of these classes, the Ruby conformance section defines a set of rules the implementers must respect. Ruby defines rules for markup, DTD, document, module, generator, and interpreter. Providing a completed ICS with the conformance claim might help customers and users to determine quickly the implemented capabilities as well as easily verify the level of support for individual requirements of the specifications. Combining the ICS with a conformance test suite can strengthen the claim. Specifically, the ICS, augmented with links to conformance tests, provides a very nice way to indicate not only what has been implemented, but also, what has been implemented correctly (i.e., conforms to the specification). It is inevitable that people (e.g., vendors, purchasers) will either claim conformance or demand conformance to a technology.

Trending Words

The benefit of addressing device independence is the increased likelihood that a specification and its implementations can be accessed from any device, in any context, by anyone. For instance, establish a team, where each person focuses on a different aspect of the specification’s correctness. The Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 Specification specification relies on a well-defined “mustIgnore” policy. The HTML 4.01 specification does not define an error handling policy, although it encourages a “mustIgnore” policy.

  • The “must Understand” policy, as implemented in SOAP 1.2 by the mustUnderstand attribute.
  • Most construction specifications are a combination of performance-based and proprietary types, naming acceptable manufacturers and products while also specifying certain standards and design criteria that must be met.
  • The Housing and Building National Research Center is responsible for developing construction specifications and codes.
  • Person, office, or agency responsible for questions on the specification, updates, and deviations.
  • Profile Z defines an implementation of Level 1 and an optional Module E.
  • Examples and information about each deprecated feature help users smoothly evolve toward the new version of the technology and understand its benefits.

Many W3C specifications have included scope prose in the Abstract section. We advocate making the scope a separate section in the body of the specification, making it easy to find, and ensuring that it is an item in the table of contents. The WebCGM specification requires an ICS as part of a conformance claim.

Person, office, or agency responsible for questions on the specification, updates, and deviations. Further simulations show that the conclusions of the simulation experiment do not change under this alternative specification. All the other forms without any specification were produced in what apparently were spontaneous utterances. Variables declared with an abstract specification are similar to variables in type theory. The independent specification hypothesis can be true only if each candidate stimulus parameter always varies uniquely with the corresponding physical event.

HTML 4.01 gives numerous examples on how to avoid the markup that was used in previous versions for deprecated elements. Create an entry and link in the table of contents for this list. Conformance should be independent of whether there is an extension or not – if an implementation conformed without the extension, then conformance should hold true with the extension. As an example, make a fake extension showing implementers the right way to create an extension.

Provide better normative guidance than recommended or provide optional features in the “core” spec. In the SVG 1.1 Recommendation, the semantics are defined in descriptive style, and the implementation requirements are defined in RFC 2119 key words in the SVG 1.1 Conformance section. The imperative style uses the imperative form to convey the requirement; guidelines or specifications that need the reader’s involvement often use it. Its weaknesses are that it does not necessarily make clear what needs to conform , and that the imperative voice may be harder to translate in some languages. When imposing requirements by normative references, address conformance dependencies.

More meanings of specification

Just as the product must adhere to the requirements of standards organizations, the supply chain must adhere to design specifications. If there is an issue, specifications are referenced by all parties involved. Variance in specs can create challenges when it comes to accountability. Specifications function as the communication vehicle that contractually binds internal and external stakeholders in agreement of the expectations of the final product. Other internal departments such as purchasing need specifications documents to procure materials. Quality teams need specifications to compare what’s coming off the product line to see if it meets the criteria.

For implementation-dependent values or features, if possible, provide a range or set of permitted values rather than leaving those values completely open. If the technology is profiled, define rules for creating new profiles. Facilitate implementation and interoperability, since implementing the entire, monolithic specification may be impractical and undesirable. Try writing test assertions when adding features to a specification. Not being able to write a test assertion for the feature suggests that there is a problem in the way the feature is designed or explained.

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