PRDs

[Máirín Duffy]

Hi,

I read this in Stephen's summary from the FOSSP thread and I wanted to
discuss it:

> == Role Process ==
> Jóhann does not like the term PRD and feels that the term as
> defined[4] doesn't really make sense for a community project.
> Moreover, he feels it doesn't make sense when applied to the role
> projects. He envisions that each role we harden and tie into our
> deployment API should be developed as a project of its own, following
> a different (non-PRD-driven) process. He suggested that Stage-Gate[5]
> might be a useful approach for this.

Why doesn't a PRD make sense for a community project? Why, specifically
is having a PRD at odds with the product having various roles?

Stage-Gate doesn't appear to be a substitute for creating a PRD...  it
looks like a standard software development process, to be honest. And
you could say we're following it right now - Stage 0 / Discovery was the
Fedora.next proposal and iterations, Stage 1 / Scoping is the ongoing
working group discussions... But please correct me if I'm wrong - I
never heard of Stage-Gate before.

The main alternative to using PRDs that I'm aware of is the agile model,
which I don't think we're following. But even in agile you have to put
requirements together in the form of user stories [1]...

That being said: isn't it a "Pandora's Box" to start geeking out on
software development methodologies? Is this really the best use of our
time? We need requirements, no matter what.

Please, can we just come up with a requirements document?

~m

[1] http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/userStory.htm