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WRITING — PRACTICE
On government projects the document is the deliverable
An SRS nobody reads is waste. An SRS that settles arguments is the cheapest code you will ever write.
PUBLISHEDFeb 2026
READING4 min
TOPICPractice
AUTHORgr-ixSaba Abbasi — backend, Baghdad
Consulting on a ministry system taught me that the artefact with the longest half-life is not the service — it is the specification everyone signed.
What earns its place
- Interfaces, with the failure modes named.
- Security controls mapped to the requirement that demanded them.
- A sequencing plan, so "phase two" means something.
What does not: diagrams that restate the text, and any section that exists so the table of contents looks thorough.
The test I use now — if a paragraph could not settle a disagreement six months later, it is decoration.
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