Functional specifications

There's a logic to creation. Creations are generated by different actions, which in turn are generated by ideas. To create, it is necessary to carry out a series of iterations between actions and ideas, one reinforcing the other. For a designer, the number of iterations required to complete a project diminishes with experience. With learning, he implicitly manages to coordinate and position actions and ideas to reduce the back-and-forth necessary for realization.

The quality of this scheduling reduces creation time and increases the relevance of the solution.

Time being one of the industry's constraints, the desire to transcribe scheduling mechanisms into an effective method gradually became apparent. A first step was taken with the construction of specifications binding two co-contractors, then applying to technical realization. A second, more sophisticated stage encompasses the field of creation, guiding the design process through the essentials of the field concerned and gradually leading it towards the most appropriate solution. This is the functional specifications document (CdCF) defined by the AFNOR X50-151 standard [4] :

"CdCF: a document by which an applicant expresses a need in terms of service functions and constraints. For each of these, the assessment criteria and their level are defined, with each criterion accompanied by a degree of flexibility."

The CdCF takes a systemic approach to understanding the complexity of the project, and then provides the rigor needed to build the solution using an analytical approach.

Who writes the specifications?

There are generally two possibilities:

• or the company is highly structured, and the task falls to the marketing department, which must be able to master the know-how ;

• or the company operates in a more flexible, less structured way, and the CdCF is drawn up by a multi-disciplinary team with the help of an expert.

The advantage of the first solution is to rapidly obtain the subsidies needed to move the project forward, but the motivation of those involved is not at its peak. In the second solution, on the other hand, the advantage is very high motivation, but there are major difficulties in obtaining the necessary funding until the project's merits have been proven.