Project Development

What to ask users ...

Submitted by Bevan on Mon, 15/08/2011 - 09:16

It's admittedly rare, but sometimes you see something on Twitter that's worth preserving and repeating ...

"Lesson learned, forgotten, and remembered: Don't ask users what software should do, instead ask them what problems they're trying to solve."

Why is it we so often do the later? Probably because it's easier!

Process Improvement

Submitted by Bevan on Thu, 25/02/2010 - 08:00

It's interesting to see how different people react to the idea of process improvement. Most people fall into one of two camps - I'll term these the Conservatives and the Radicals.

Conservatives don't see any need for change at all: "That's just the way we do things around here, we get the job done, and I've got work to do anyway." They put no effort into process improvement, and therefore realise no improvements. They never make things worse - but they never make them better either.

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On Priorities

Submitted by Bevan on Thu, 17/12/2009 - 20:35

Browsing the Great Programming Quotes question over on StackOverflow, I found a really thought provoking quote:

Make it Correct.
Make it Clear.
Make it Concise.
Make it Fast.

In that order.

(Attributed to Wes Dyer)

While there's a lot that could be written about this, I've just one observation ...

All too often, it seems our customers would rank things different ...

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Coming up to speed

Submitted by Bevan on Thu, 10/09/2009 - 22:47

Over on Five Whys Roy Osherove has an interesting post on how to find the hidden problems on your project.

Assuming you're a new tech lead on a team, and everyone else is already up to speed, how do you find out the problem areas?

Roy suggests you get everyone together - including the stakeholders who stand to benefit (or be crucified) and ask one simple question:

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Are we speaking the same Language?

Submitted by Bevan on Wed, 26/08/2009 - 23:24

I'm continually surprised by the level of disagreement and argument that occurs simply because the people conversing are working from different definitions of basic words.

Have you ever had this conversation ...

Project Manager: Can we complete this project by the deadline?
Developer: No.
Project Manager: But I've already promised the customer that we can.
Developer (to himself): WTF?

I believe the problem here comes from a difference in how the word "No" is understood.

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