The gulf

We have eight customers on site.

We have eighteen developers.

Everyone is intelligent, doing their best to get the job done. However, there is distance between the teams, physical and understanding. I think the physical distance leads to misunderstanding, misinterpretation and makes the gulf wider.

We all need humility.

Specification won't be perfect. Implementation won't be perfect. There are too many translation layers. Customer -> tests & developer -> code. Each translation introduces error.

It's important to understand that it's not just broken telephone, but translation between English and French. The words can be understood but there are "cultural" differences as well, subtleties and nuances are missed. Eric Evans domain driven design is an attempt to close the communication gap. So are frequent releases and having the customer on site.

Writing it down will solve none of the communication problems. Being humble, and getting closer will make it easier.