‘In the beginning was the Word’: the importance of words in system design

At this time of year, the Gospel of St John is often used in the context of Christmas celebrations. Its opening sentence, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, is almost as memorable as it is magical and perplexing.

I’m attracted to that central concept of ‘the Word’ as a beginning. Not in the sense of biblical mystery or wonder, but more in terms of the importance of words as a way to start describing human activities.

However much we draw diagrams to visualise the structure of something or use mathematics to predict the way in which it will behave, it always seems to be the words we use to describe it that resonate most.

This can lead to some wonderful prose. But for engineers, particularly those involved in system design, this prevalence for textual descriptions can be something of a mixed blessing.

Why engineers need words

For a project to find supporters, before any diagrams and equations are created, engineers need to explain what they intend to do. Alternatively, supporters may need to describe the problem they’d like to be solved, before even engaging engineers.

In those situations, the qualifying nature of words is often a more understandable and indeed an emotive way to convey ideas, requirements or plans.

From ambiguity to clarity

But words can be notoriously imprecise, i.e. flexible and open to misinterpretation. For example, lawyers have long used the ambiguities present in statements by witnesses, the accused and accusers to cast actions in different lights. This might be useful for the accused (or accusers) but can be frustrating for those wishing to get at ‘the truth’.

Early in a development or a project, it’s precisely that ambiguity that makes words a suitable medium. At that point, no one is really sure exactly what’s needed, what should be done or even what led to the project in the first place. Descriptions almost must be vague, to allow an idea to be conveyed without being immediately dismissed because a detail hasn’t been worked-through.

Then, as a project progresses, more clarity – precision, detail and especially quantifying – is needed. Those early ambiguities need to be resolved, and reasonably accurate predictions and estimates made about the project’s inputs and outputs. It’s at this point that diagrams and mathematics come into their own.

A happy marriage of words and numbers

It often feels as if the initial emotional description gets lost in the transfer to those colder, formal definitions.

However, it doesn’t have to be such a harsh separation. If we refine our grammars, reduce our vocabularies, classify our words, then natural language can still be used as part of those later project stages. In effect, it’s possible to have the semantic richness of words while still ensuring the accuracy of diagrams and numbers.

How NumberWorks can help

It’s precisely this approach we use in our NumberWorks method. That’s because we know how important it is for those emotional descriptions to be retained in some form – even as detail is discovered. Without them, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the underlying reason for a project or system.

The blocks of a diagram or the variables of an equation can provide the details of a solution: the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. But it’s the words that provide the reason for it: the ‘why’.

So, perhaps it’s not only a biblical story that should begin with words.

Festive greetings from the Quantiv team

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and warmest wishes for the New Year.