Ask HN: Documentation before starting a software project?
How much up-front documentation do you write before starting a software project? Do you do any tradeoff studies or analysis, and if so, of what?
However aside from in school I've never documented, designed, developed in the waterfall model style. I've never seen anyone else work that way either in "real life."
Most places either officially use agile-style development or unofficially do (i.e. claim they use the waterfall model, but in reality are going back and updating the requirements/design throughout development).
Something can be said for Unit Test-first development. However you really need to have good tooling, mocks, and so on before that is viable (otherwise you burn too much time getting even basic unit tests off the ground).
It really depends on the project and where the main complexity occurs.
[1]: http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-devel...
For example:
1. At inception, a one-pager to make the business case and get funding/backing/ok/whatever. Audience: executives
2. Before starting, the end-user perspective on what is going to be done. Get feedback, use for sizing/scheduling. Audience: other departments
3. Before too much construction (after a proof-of-concept), an overview of the basic architecture and sketch of a plan. Audience: other developers.