That cartoon has been around quite a while and I still chuckle every time I see it. At my previous job, I had requirements training with Karl Weigers (who wrote the "Software Requirements" book from Microsoft Press). I'm not a fan of BDUF unless you've only got one chance to succeed, but it was invaluable as a guide for learning how to communicate requirements. So if you're writing stories and practicing agile, are you being clear and concise?
Absolutely. Each time I see it, i laugh a lot. :) In fact, I have a startup company and basicly i follow agile practices mainly beacuse of resource constraints and productivity. I'll write SRS document for my project course in Phd. So, I needed to revise it. I generally emphasis on product rather than documentation. When I'm writing documentation, I make it as simple as possible.
I thought the entire point of the Agile movement was that such a requirements spec was, in essence, impossible for precisely the reasons shown in that cartoon?
Absolutely. For this reason, they said: "Working software over comprehensive documentation" in Agile manifesto. However, you cannot develop a product without knowing your requirements. You have some kind of requirements or features spec in any methodology.