>Hi All:
>
>I was turned down for a programming job today , no biggy, but I've not run into this problem before and would like your opinion(s) - I'm not a real professional like most of you here on UT.
>
>The job was to write a POS program for a small retail store. I spoke with the owner for about 3 hours. The job was straight forward - I think I had a lot of it already written, in my head, at the end of out meeting.
>
>The owner then threw me a curve. He said he wanted to get a manual first - then we'd work out changes (deletions, and/or additions) to the design and functionality. I told him that I don't think that's possible. He said that all professaional programs starts with manuals then after approval from the hirer the actual programming begins. I again, told him that it wasn't possible. He told me "good day", and I left confused.
>
>Can someone tell me if what this guy said is true or not? If so, how can you write a manual before at least a proto-type is done - in other words, before any coding?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Mal

I think Ken is correct. He is looking for a Functional Specification. The way big commercial shops work is from the Functional Specification. For example, MS, when creating Word, will do the Functional Spec first. The user doc people and the programmers will work from the spec...and work simultaneously on their parts.