It may seem business users are fickle, that they want and demand a system that does X, but then when it's delivered, they never use it. That could be attributed to a variety of reasons: (1) perhaps the requirements gathering exercise went awry (i.e., the system doesn't do what they wanted it to do), (2) usability is horrible, or (3) their needs have changed; possibly because the system took too long to deliver and they've adapted their business processes and need something new or even nothing at all.
The above are just a smattering of reasons, and definitely not all-encompassing. However, working on Wall Street (and I'm not talking just about IT) is a risky proposition. Talk to 1st year analysts about waste. These people sit on the front lines and put in 15 hour days and 90 hour weeks. Some of their tasks entail creating Powerpoint presentations, creating reports, binding books, etc. in painstaking detail and constant revision. And you know what? Sometimes, they're never even used. It's no wonder then that this 'waste' trickles over to the IT side. The business is apparently 'fickle' all on its own.
We in IT want to so desperately get it right. We want to have perfect requirements, requirements that don't change, so we can move to design and then software construction without any hiccups. Change bothers us which is ironic because technology is all about change!
We want to manage projects in classic waterfall fashion where we're absolutely finished with requirements which we can then hand over to our architects who will then create an architecture/design which can then be handed over to developers and so on. Change disrupts this.
We need to get away from this line of thinking. We need to welcome change. We need to be adaptable. And if there's waste going on with our business users, it sure as hell is going to happen in IT. Denying this is futile. Waste WILL happen. But the term 'waste' is really a misnomer. It's not waste if it helps us move towards a goal. It's an avenue we explore but then realize that it's not the right one. That's what it really is.
Edison once said: I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Case in point: I've heard that Apple creates zillions of prototypes and goes through very rigorous testing to ensure that only the highest quality product goes out (in terms of usability, customer appeal, design, etc). Would these zillions of prototypes be considered waste? Not when you consider what Apple has achieved! They are true innovators and it takes incredible zeal and innovation to get there. But also a freedom from the fear of not having to do it right the first time.
So those prototypes or that first release of the software that you don't want to develop until the requirements are fully in, forget it. Your best bet is to go ahead and develop it so you can use it to elicit even better requirements from your users and build relationships with your stakeholders.
1 comment:
The quest for great design makes business sense for Apple whose "stakeholders" are consumers at large. For consumer products beauty and elegance matter.
On Wall Street, where the majority of systems are intended to be used internally by relatively small numbers of users, it's hard to justify the expense in iterative prototyping to make a higher quality product. Why make something polished for a handful of users? Just give them the bare minimum to get there job done. They've got a high threshold of indignation.
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