The Importance Of Detailed Project Specifications In A Team

Making a customised cake was a pretty recent trend. Before that, cakes were all ready-made, and you could only buy them off the shelf. You could opt for the more premium cakes that used good ingredients, were nicely decorated, etc, but having your picture there wasn't an option until much later.

Convenient, personalisable, and very funny when the unexpected happens. The following photo of the cake shows what happened. It looks ok - in fact, it's a pretty good representation of the thumb drive - until you discover that it's actually supposed to contain what's INSIDE the thumb drive instead.

Check it out, it's hilarious (via the Cake Wrecks blog)

[answering phone] "Cakey Cake Bakery, Jill speaking! How can I help you?"

"Hi, I need to order a cake for my boss. We have a photo of him playing golf that we'd like to put on it, though - can you do that?"

"Of course! Just bring the photo in on a USB drive and we'll print it out here."

"Great, I'll bring it by this afternoon."

Later...

"Hey, Jill, what am I putting on this cake?"

"Oh, check the counter; I left the jump drive out for you there."

[calling from the back room] "Really? This is what they want on the cake?"

"Yeah, the customer just brought it in."

"Okey dokey!"

It's a good reminder of spec-ing your requirements clearly, and so important when working with others. It's of my belief that things can never be stated too clearly. Even better - have the other party confirm your requirements by asking them to restate what is it that they're supposed to do. This is applicable to your team mates, colleagues, staff, or....baker. As can be expected, it's not that important for trivial tasks, but for urgent and critical tasks (like a cake for your boss), it can be absolutely essential.

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