write specifications and implement in parallel

I stumbled today about a discussion on HTML 5 with a mozilla developer.

Implementations and specifications have to do a delicate dance together. You
don’t want implementations to happen before the specification is finished,
because people start depending on the details of implementations and that
constrains the specification. However, you also don’t want the specification
to be finished before there are implementations and author experience with
those implementations, because you need the feedback. There is unavoidable
tension here, but we just have to muddle on through … I think we’re doing
OK.

I can agree completely. Waterfall model was yesterday.
You need the feedback from developers!

What Mozilla does OK should all other software development projects consider.

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Jan/0107.html

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