The philosophy behind Documentation-Driven Development is a simple: from the perspective of a user, if a feature is not documented, then it doesn't exist, and if a feature is documented incorrectly, then it's broken.
- Document the feature first. Figure out how you're going to describe the feature to users; if it's not documented, it doesn't exist. Documentation is the best way to define a feature in a user's eyes.
- Whenever possible, documentation should be reviewed by users (community or Spark Elite) before any development begins.
- Once documentation has been written, development should commence, and test-driven development is preferred.
- Unit tests should be written that test the features as described by the documentation. If the functionality ever comes out of alignment with the documentation, tests should fail.
- When a feature is being modified, it should be modified documentation-first.
- When documentation is modified, so should be the tests.
- Documentation and software should both be versioned, and versions should match, so someone working with old versions of software should be able to find the proper documentation.
So, the preferred order of operations for new features:
- Write documentation
- Get feedback on documentation
- Test-driven development (where tests align with documentation)
- Push features to staging
- Functional testing on staging, as necessary
- Deliver feature
- Publish documentation
- Increment versions
I have asked myself what Spark Elite could mean. Probably everyone has already find out the answer. But for the ones who not, I asked Google Gemini providing him the context of this Gist and got this answer. Which to me sounds plausible:
_In the context of that document, "Spark Elite" refers to a select group of advanced users or experts—likely an internal team or a highly qualified community segment—who possess the technical insight needed to validate whether documentation is accurate and useful before development starts.
While the term seems specific to the author's particular project or workplace, its role within the Documentation-Driven Development (DDD) methodology is to serve as a quality gate.
Essentially, the author is stating that documentation should be vetted by those who understand the product best (the broader community or this "Elite" group) to ensure that when coding begins, the requirements are crystal clear and free of misunderstandings._