Good Exchange Specifications: Microsoft vs Apple

Feb 13, 2012

One of the early choices you have to make in building a specification is around how to leverage your domain analysis. It’s a question of how you use your story boards. There’s the Apple way, and there’s the Microsoft way. The Apple Way

The Apple way is simple: you document your story boards, and then you develop a solution to the story boards that you agreed to. You’re going to produce a tightly crafted, simple workflow/product that solves those story boards very effectively. In as much as you’ve covered their workflow, the users will love the outcome, and it’ll just work for them. If you haven’t covered their work flow, well, they just ain’t going to be a fan-boy.

The Microsoft Way

This isn’t so simple: once you’ve documented your story boards, then you generalise the things you see, and solve the general case. You’re going to produce a flexible robust product that can be tailored to all sorts of usages you never imagined. Users will never love your products, but they’ll keep using and buying them, because they can do what they need.

Btw, I learnt about these two “Ways” by personal revelation in a vision by both Steve and Bill, so you can take them as gospel. Of course not - this is just how I feel they work based on using their products extensively. And, of course, this is a stereotype. Anyone who’s tried to teach their grandma how to shoot rogue applications on their iPhone knows that Apple can produce some spectacularly bad UI as well - but by and large, these stereotypes have held true for a long time.

The same two can apply to standards - you can do your business analysis, and solve just that problem in the standard. It’ll be easy to use, fit for purpose. It’ll just work. That is, it’ll just work when the story boards (etc) fit to the implementers problem. If they don’t…. well, there’s always another standard. If you generalise the requirements, then your standard will always be more complicated than any single user wants - but at least it’ll work (all right, at least there’s a high chance it’ll sort of work!)

Straw Poll in the comments: which works better?