When it comes to development of any kind, a complete specifications worksheet or statement of work is one of the most important considerations. Surprisingly, creating that document or even a discussion of one is often glossed over when an application/feature has been developed before or does not appear to be ground breaking or difficult. This can lead to serious problems when a project gets farther down the line because of misunderstandings between the parties involved.

Any application that involves programming logic has the potential of growing larger than anticipated if not thought out completely before even one line of code is written. Even developing features as seemingly simple as contact forms can lead to problems if everyone (developer, administrator, account rep, client) does not have a written out and signed-off specification sheet. Issues of “scope creep” often happen if a project is based off ambiguous or nonexistent specifications.

There are a lot of reasons why spec sheets are brief or nonexistent. The additional time needed to create them and the confusing and technical verbiage that may be used in them could affect the negotiation process. Often, clients resist signing off on anything technical if they believe it will pigeonhole them into a corner. These are all valid concerns. However, a complete, understandable, and agreed upon specification sheet remains an instrumental part of any development project. Before proposing or starting a project of any significant size, serious thought should be given to the need and importance of well thought out spec sheets.