Operationism and engineering specification writing

The objective of the discussion is to help engineers reduce the number of situations where their specifications fail to communicate. Specifications are the written instructions given by engineers to people with whom they conduct business. The applicability of P.W. Bridgman´s concept (1927; 1950) of operational definition to specifications is considered. It is pointed out that, while operational definitions are routinely used with great success in one familiar engineering application, they may also be applied fruitfully in the development of both design and performance types of specifications