How to tell a software developer what you want

The more you can spe­cify in advance, the more likely the soft­ware will come back more like what you envi­sioned and the more likely the cost will be afford­able. This is how to do it:

1. Define the busi­ness need.
2. Don’t tell the developer about the solu­tion. Describe the prob­lem.
3. Define the users.
4. Doc­u­ment the exist­ing work­flow.
5. Dis­tin­guish between user inter­face, plat­form, and con­tent.
6. Prioritize.

This art­icle, pub­lished in IT World, cov­ers how to tell the developer what you want. It helps you clearly define and com­mu­nic­ate your soft­ware require­ments — the first step towards suc­cess­ful devel­op­ment project.