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RE: Lesson Learned: who is best qualified to write a dataspecification?

• From: Nora M Dowling <ndowling@mitre.org>
• To: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>, "xml-dev@l..."<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:32:24 +0000

Hi, Roger,

The pilot is only specifying the "output" precision. The precision used in
processing and even input should never be driven by the UI.

-Nora

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> 
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2022 10:26 AM
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject:  Lesson Learned: who is best qualified to write a data
specification?

Scenario: A data specification for aeronautical data needs to be written.
Who should write it? Who best understands aeronautical data?

Intuitively, it seems that pilots would be supremely qualified for such an
undertaking. After all, who knows aeronautical data better than pilots?

Alas, pilots may not be the best choice for writing the data specification.
Let's see why.

Suppose that part of the data involves angles (perhaps the angle of an
aircraft turn). The pilot says, "From my experience, the cockpit display
shows the angle to 1 degree precision. Therefore the data should be to one
degree precision." 

But what the pilot has failed to take into consideration is that the data
might be arrived at via a series of calculations and those calculations
might have roundoff errors. So if the specification just stipulates 1-degree
precision, the data may end up being quite off (incorrect). Also, the pilot
has failed to take into consideration the accuracy of the instruments that
measure the angles.

Lesson Learned: When writing a data specification for a domain, a Subject
Matter Expert (SME) in the domain is not necessarily the best person to
write the data specification. At a minimum, the SME should be paired up with
an engineer who understands things such as roundoff errors and instrument
accuracy.

/Roger

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• References:
  • Lesson Learned: who is best qualified to write a data specification?
    • From: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>