Software professionals agree that requirements and specifications are critical to successful system delivery and support, yet today much of the information needed to prepare these documents is difficult to retrieve in a timely manner. Further, the cost of conformance to standards is inflated by the scarcity of expertise and the drain on existing resources.      The Software Specification Assistant (SSA) attacks these problems in a cost effective manner by providing an integrated set of information repositories and tools to guide, instruct and inform novice and expert staff. SSA is used in specifying, updating and evaluating requirements of mission critical software.      A software specification document is crucial for a successful project. It describes the features the new product should have. A good software specification document can: Reduce the time needed to complete the project by determining the usability of the system and providing the customers with a realistic expectation of what the system will do — before it is built. Improve customer satisfaction since their expectations are met or exceeded. A well-understood specification reduces unplanned features and informs developers where future features will be needed, so the design can allow for them. Determine what features are most important, and what subsets of features comprise a useful solution. By dividing the full feature set into useful subsets, and confirming these subsets, you can better plan a staged delivery that will test your assumptions and validate your design.      We can work with your design team and get your project off to a good start by writing a well-understood software specification.