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Getting It Real and Really Getting It
By Micha | April 21, 2008
I recently jumped ship on a project that seemed destined to hit the rocky shores of missed deadlines and then sink in the swirling eddies of communication breakdown. I wasn’t on board for long - about a week and a half really - but during that time I spent far too many days trying to obtain critical information about the project’s code structure and database from the engineers who had developed it.
The problem seemed to stem from the fact that there was no provision made to pay the engineers for the time it would take them to conduct a proper knowledge transfer to me. As independent business people like me, I would certainly not expect them to do this for free.
But the young manager at the helm of this project, seemingly on her maiden voyage, had very little idea about how to connect the crew of geographically dispersed contractors. Sadly, she exhibited an unrealistic faith in the value of the ‘Chat Tool’ (complte w. obscr abrev.s and speling mistwaks) for bearing the brunt of the knowledge transfer process. So much for context and clarity.
What was clear was that my need to communicate with the team through phone calls rather than emoticons proved to be an indulgence that lay far beyond the reach of this project’s budget. With no course corrections forthcoming I felt I had no choice but to jump into the nearest lifeboat.
I’m not used to backing away from a challenge and to be frank, this left me with a thirst for some sort of confirmation that bridging the gap between end users and engineers requires not only knowledge, experience and insight but also a solid channel of effective communication in both directions.
It so happened that last week, I was on a panel* for the Ottawa Software Executive Forum (OSEF) that discussed the topic of “Effective Techniques for Defining and Designing Product Features”. To my delight, our discussion gravitated towards the very issue of how to bridge the gap between end users and engineers. What a great opportunity to air out some ideas and validate my ‘obsession’ for high bandwidth communication.
As a panel of agreeable usability specialists we initially risked boring our audience of software executives with our collective head nodding. However there was an individual in the audience who had more than a little to say on every aspect of our discussion.
At first I misread his energy, thinking that this was going to one of those gruelling sessions where one overly-eager individual would dominate the proceedings and steer them into a deep ditch of irrelevant ideas. However the fact was this particular guy was talking sense – a lot of sense.
And by ‘sense’ I mean he was one of those rare software executives who seemed to ‘get it’ when it comes to recognizing some of the real issues behind getting engineering processes to be both user oriented and productive.
He understood the value of guiding engineers, designers, and product managers into a common mindspace that focuses on solving tangible real world problems for real world end users. Focusing on a common goal such as this, along with using the proper collaborative tools, greatly improves the chances of working more effectively together.
He repeatedly spoke about the benefits of ‘agile development methodologies’ which, among other things, stresses the key importance of high bandwidth, face-to-face communication between engineers and business experts.
My thirst was quenched. But it got better than that - it turned out that this man was none other than Dave Thomas who has an impressive track record as a thought leader in the world of innovative software development practices. Widely known for founding Object Technology International (now IBM OTI labs) he is a pioneer in Agile Product Development and one of the founding directors of the Agile Alliance . Confirmation from such an experienced source was indeed like coming home to a safe port.
In conversation after the session, Dave shared a revealing anecdote about an individual who no doubt contributed to his awareness of the need for proper production practices. He spoke about an uncle who had worked his way up to a very high position at AT&T. Technologies change rapidly and, over time, this wise uncle became concerned about the growing knowledge gap between himself as a senior executive and the ranks of engineering staff under his management. One day, to the horror of his peers and the surprise of his staff, he resigned his executive position and jumped back down to the level of engineer in order to re-immerse himself in the realities of the current technologies.
Throughout our panel discussion Dave had stressed, from his seat in the audience no less, the importance of software executives ‘walking the floor’ and staying vitally in touch with the realities of the day. He declared that far too many of today’s software executives approach their job purely from a theoretical ‘bottom line’ point of view and lack the critical knowledge required to steer the development ship away from dangerous waters.
I couldn’t agree more.
Footnotes
*The panel members were Scott MacEwen of Cognos/IBM , Lorraine Chapman of Macadamian Usability, Tom Hoferek, Corel Corp, and myself M Baynger of The User Advocate Group. The moderator was Marc Graveline of Cognos/IBM)
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Topics: usability, customer relations, user relations, user experience, coding, ineffective communication, understanding technology, effective communication |