[EricH]

Originally Posted by philso

The teams that do well don't just "meet the specifications", they go above and beyond.

Actually... They do just meet the specifications. However, they set their robot specifications higher than FIRST does.

In the real world, I need to meet or beat specs. But, at the same time, I might be the one setting some of the specs based on what the customer wants. If the customer says, "I want up to three robots on this place" and that place is big enough for three and not four (and barely big enough for three at that), then if I design for 4, 5, or 6 robots, I may be able to meet the customer's specification--but it's not a good solution, because it's outside the customer's needs/wants, and the time I spend engineering that solution can be better spent for other things, like putting as many basketballs as possible into a hoop 10' high, which the customer also wants.