SpecDatei

SpecDatei is a generic term for a file that contains specifications about a product, system, or software. It is not a single standardized format; it serves as a naming convention used in many projects. The data within a SpecDatei is often stored in common structured formats such as XML, JSON, or YAML, or in a domain-specific language tailored to a project.

A SpecDatei typically includes metadata such as name, version, author, and date, as well as sections for requirements, interfaces, performance criteria, constraints, acceptance criteria, and test cases. It may reference related documents or diagrams and can be validated against a schema to ensure consistency and machine-checkable conformance.

The primary purpose of a SpecDatei is to provide a single source of truth for stakeholders, guiding development, quality assurance, and verification. It supports traceability from requirements through design to testing, and can be used to generate documentation or compliance artifacts.

In practice, teams define their own schemas or adopt existing ones, and use a range of tools from plain text editors to specialized editors with validation support. Version control and change history are common, as are automation hooks in build or test pipelines that consume SpecDatei data.

An example content outline might include fields such as id, title, version, status, a list of requirements with IDs and descriptions, interfaces with data formats and protocols, performance goals, and acceptance tests.

The term SpecDatei is especially common in German-language environments to emphasize the document nature of a specification file; it is analogous to a specification sheet or design document in other industries.