A practical guide to writing technical specs

This endless lost of spec sections sounds a lot like waterfall. It's a formula for a gigantic document that one person writes and nobody ever reads. And when they do, the real world has already caused half of it to be outdated.

Agreed. They lost me at "Front Matter".

Is it just me or does a reasonable concern for documentation over time ossify into rent-seeking by corporate moochers?

I believe some parts of this are important:

1. Describing the problem, the business value, and the key words/definitions

2. Defining the goals _and non-goals_ for the project

3. Describing the implementation's logic and data model (a simple schema with boxes and arrows)

I like how it is done in "Domain Modeling Made Functional". However I agree too much of this is counterproductive.

The spec itself is not so important but the process of creating it. Because all stakeholders are forced to think through the problem and the implementation beforehand, come to an agreement and are on the same information level before starting.

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

- Eisenhower

Is this an April Fool's joke?

You don't know 80% of this stuff before you start.