NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/lang/c++-part2/13197

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 3.5 KB

Path: news1.erols.com![e-mail]
From: [e-mail] (Bill Robison)
Newsgroups: alt.computer.consultants,comp.lang.c++,comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.programming
Subject: Re: Can we do programming without seeing the end user?
Date: 24 Mar 1996 05:58:37 GMT
Organization: BDM Federal Systems, Inc.
Message-ID: <4j2oad$[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <4ivp84$[e-mail]> <4j2898$[e-mail]>
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In article <4j2898$[e-mail]>, [e-mail] says...
>
>In article <4ivp84$[e-mail]>,
>   [e-mail](ANDREW GRYGUS ) wrote:
>>In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Svein Olav
>>Mytting) writes:
[snip]

>I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am that someone else out there
>shares my view!  I am at a loss as to how any department without a direct
>line of communication with the parties who are actually requesting a product
>expects to be able to even come close to what the requesting party would have
>been best serviced by.
>
>My take has generally been that it's a management decision not to put the
>client in touch with the "weird boys."  If this isn't the case, and you are
>in a programming position where it's actually been *your* decision not to
>communicate with the clients, let me know where you are.  Hopefully your
>employer will help me relieve you of your torment for your clients' sake!
>

It is generally impossible to perform a decent problem analysis without
being in constant touch with the people that know what needs to be done
during any phase of development that has significant impact upon either
the functions the software performs or upon the way in which the results
are presented-- you have to talk extensively with domain experts before
you even know what is you're supposed to do for them.

BUT that doesn't mean that I want to have everyone talking to anyone, for
Pete's sake! Saying the gadget geeks should be involved with the customer
sounds fine, but as a generality it just fails miserably.

Think of a scenario: you are building a distributed app for a bank that
is going to store, forward, and process transactions from across the U.S.
while keeping local databases updated and synchronized with a central
database at a clearing point as each transaction is validated. You get
the user interface folks involved with the keypunch operators that are
going to be putting the stuff into the computers, you get the accounting
managers involved with the ES guys that are going to write business rules
for the data repositories, etc., so that the problem is adequately reflec-
ted in the solution.

Do NOT get the network programming boys talking about messaging dependa-
bility with the client's transaction clerks-- they'll both come out
of the meeting with glazed eyes and no better understanding than that
with which they started. Whatever you do, don't get accounting talking
to the database programmers-- stop them at the designers, before they
wreak too much trouble!

Yes, this is a little satirical; I do think that the people building
the software should have strong contact with the target users, but do be
sure that the people talking have an adequate overlap in their frames
of reference, or you have what those managers are afraid of-- the users
coming away muttering about "gearheads" and the developers leaving, com-
plaining about "idiot users."


--
Bill Robison
[e-mail]
[e-mail]