Cutting up the Mona Lisa with Usability and Industry Standards
I know our number one priority as Software Architects and Developers is to deliver the desires of our customers. But what do you do when your customer is asking you to destroy his business?
A story of how I feel-
Let's say we were art dealers and some how I was able to buy the Mona Lisa. I was in the business of buying famous paintings, reframing them to my customer's liking, and delivering them to them.
So I get the offer I asked for on the Mona Lisa. I call the customer and ask them how they want her framed. There reply is, I don't want her framed, I want you to glue the painting to cardboard, send her to a puzzle cutting business, and when it is cut up have them mail it to my grandmother. She loves puzzles and she loves Leonardo da Vinci's work.
Lately, every week I am cutting up a new famous painting at the request of my customer.
Real Life
I am not going to go into the details of what we are being asked to do. Mainly for 3 reasons. One is, I am sick of thinking about it. Two is, I am sick of talking about it. Three is, I am sick of writing about it.
Let's just summarize the situation. We are trying our hardest to implement industry standards, common patterns for UI design found among the successful web sites our there (good book for that), and trying to implement industry wide usability best practices. The problem…. Our client loves to invent and their attitude is "I don't care what others are doing" (their exact words), which we have heard repeatedly.
What do ya do??? Document Everything, and Send it up the chain.
My status reports are where I do my best to put the issues on the shelf after I have said my final word on these topics. My status reports serve 2 purposes. One is to report our status, and two is to document the efforts that our team has made to make this project make sense.
Right now if this project I am on would be audited by the powers that be, someone's butt would be cooked. Today we are in no danger of that, but I have been on projects before where attention ends up being drawn on a project that for the longest time was allowed to bop along at its own pace, doing its own thing, thinking it was the tip of the power iceberg.
Change can be brought on by a lot of things. A change in personnel. Someone gets hired that does care what you are doing with the big fat budget you get every year. It could be brought on by a security breach that hits your application and that beach is news worthy. It could be brought on by a policy change. One day 'You're the man', the next day 'You’re on the man's' whipping pole. It doesn't really matter how, the point is it can.
To talk about your concerns is great. It allows for a dynamic attempt to change the situation. But if that doesn't work, and even if it seemed like it did, document your thoughts and send them up the chain. At any point in the chain your thoughts may changed (shot down) by one of the links in the chain, but that doesn't matter because your thoughts have left you in the form you presented them to the next higher up.
I have been in situations where my thoughts were changed (shot down) by the next person in line, and I have been in situations where they made it to the customer and then they were changed. But in all situations I make sure I have a paper trail that ends and starts with me. That means I have documented my thoughts and my team's thoughts. If they are changed at any level, I still have the proof I sent them on.
Paranoia the Destroyer (lyrics)
At one time I thought my thoughts spoken were good enough and I would have thought this is a bit paranoid. But experience has proved the opposite. On this project and on past projects. Keeping a paper trail on this project has shown to save us several times. I can't even fathom a guess at how many times this client has said, "I was never told that" and I have had the email to show them that they were. Most of the time I have one that they had responded to. There have also been a ton of predictions by our team of future problems that would result from a decision the client made. When the problem happened guess who the finger pointed at. At least until I resent the email that warned them it would happen, which I had sent months before.
When Documenting Everything, and Sending it up the chain should be avoided
When you love to invent and your attitude is "I don't care what others are doing". My suggestion to you is document nothing and deny everything!!!!!
A story of how I feel-
Let's say we were art dealers and some how I was able to buy the Mona Lisa. I was in the business of buying famous paintings, reframing them to my customer's liking, and delivering them to them.
So I get the offer I asked for on the Mona Lisa. I call the customer and ask them how they want her framed. There reply is, I don't want her framed, I want you to glue the painting to cardboard, send her to a puzzle cutting business, and when it is cut up have them mail it to my grandmother. She loves puzzles and she loves Leonardo da Vinci's work.
Lately, every week I am cutting up a new famous painting at the request of my customer.
Real Life
I am not going to go into the details of what we are being asked to do. Mainly for 3 reasons. One is, I am sick of thinking about it. Two is, I am sick of talking about it. Three is, I am sick of writing about it.
Let's just summarize the situation. We are trying our hardest to implement industry standards, common patterns for UI design found among the successful web sites our there (good book for that), and trying to implement industry wide usability best practices. The problem…. Our client loves to invent and their attitude is "I don't care what others are doing" (their exact words), which we have heard repeatedly.
What do ya do??? Document Everything, and Send it up the chain.
My status reports are where I do my best to put the issues on the shelf after I have said my final word on these topics. My status reports serve 2 purposes. One is to report our status, and two is to document the efforts that our team has made to make this project make sense.
Right now if this project I am on would be audited by the powers that be, someone's butt would be cooked. Today we are in no danger of that, but I have been on projects before where attention ends up being drawn on a project that for the longest time was allowed to bop along at its own pace, doing its own thing, thinking it was the tip of the power iceberg.
Change can be brought on by a lot of things. A change in personnel. Someone gets hired that does care what you are doing with the big fat budget you get every year. It could be brought on by a security breach that hits your application and that beach is news worthy. It could be brought on by a policy change. One day 'You're the man', the next day 'You’re on the man's' whipping pole. It doesn't really matter how, the point is it can.
To talk about your concerns is great. It allows for a dynamic attempt to change the situation. But if that doesn't work, and even if it seemed like it did, document your thoughts and send them up the chain. At any point in the chain your thoughts may changed (shot down) by one of the links in the chain, but that doesn't matter because your thoughts have left you in the form you presented them to the next higher up.
I have been in situations where my thoughts were changed (shot down) by the next person in line, and I have been in situations where they made it to the customer and then they were changed. But in all situations I make sure I have a paper trail that ends and starts with me. That means I have documented my thoughts and my team's thoughts. If they are changed at any level, I still have the proof I sent them on.
Paranoia the Destroyer (lyrics)
At one time I thought my thoughts spoken were good enough and I would have thought this is a bit paranoid. But experience has proved the opposite. On this project and on past projects. Keeping a paper trail on this project has shown to save us several times. I can't even fathom a guess at how many times this client has said, "I was never told that" and I have had the email to show them that they were. Most of the time I have one that they had responded to. There have also been a ton of predictions by our team of future problems that would result from a decision the client made. When the problem happened guess who the finger pointed at. At least until I resent the email that warned them it would happen, which I had sent months before.
When Documenting Everything, and Sending it up the chain should be avoided
When you love to invent and your attitude is "I don't care what others are doing". My suggestion to you is document nothing and deny everything!!!!!
posted by tadanderson at 9:13 AM
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