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Re: Who gets interviewed to produce use cases?

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  To: David Lamb
From: "Lew" <lew@1:261/38.remove-k2r-this>

  To: David Lamb
From: "Lew" <lew@1:261/38.remove-qhs-this>

  To: David Lamb
From: Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>

On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 11:26:41 AM UTC-7, David Lamb wrote:
> Does anyone have data, or at least an informed opinion, on how often
> genuine users of a proposed piece of software get consulted on
> developing use cases (or some close equivalent)? I ask here because of
> the recent UML discussion and because I've seen people, especially Lew,
> mention use cases reasonably frequently.

I mention use cases in a rather abstract sense, that is, to signify the 
underlying
phenomenon of a collection of circumstances and needs. You seem to use the term 
in a more restricted sense of the documentation of such phenomena.

These are distinct things. The report is not the situation on the ground.

> In an informal discussion with a colleague I was arguing based on things
> I'd read that "modern best practices" recommended interviewing the
> people who will actually use a software system in their jobs, rather
> than only upper management or professional consultants. He said the
> industry standard was to resell an old system to new customers and
> charge for every small attempt to get it to work the way the customers
> wanted.
>
> Is he being excessively cynical, or am I being excessively naive? Does

You are not being naive, and he is being cynical. I cannot speak to whether his 
cynicism is excessive.

I disagree that projects generally are designed to rip off customers as he 
describes, but in some sectors such practices are more prevalent than in 
others.

Every industry has its snakes in the grass.

> anyone know which of us is closer to right? Is the answer different for
> the Java and object-oriented-development community than it is for other
> developers?

Those questions require data.

If there are data, they are either secret, in which case no one here can tell 
you of them, or publicized, in which case GIYF.

Undoubtedly people here have opinions and anecdotes, but you are asking about 
reality. To answer your questions requires data.

I can tell you from experience that projects exist that might give the 
appearance of justifying your colleague's cynicism but that was not deliberate. 
Many software projects are not well managed, but I attribute that to 
incompetence rather than malice. Industry estimates of the failure rate for 
multi-million-dollar projects (up into the billions!) range from 33% to 67%, 
that I've read.

So the data indicate that many projects fail to satisfy the requirements, or 
even see deployment, with good evidence that it's the majority of projects.

The majority of *multi-hundred-million dollar* projects.

Is that on purpose? The data I've seen don't say.

--
Lew

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Who gets interviewed to produce use cases? "David Lamb" <david.lamb@1:261/38.remove-k2r-this> - 2012-08-09 18:44 +0000
  Re: Who gets interviewed to produce use cases? "Robert Klemme" <robert.klemme@1:261/38.remove-t9h-this> - 2012-08-10 18:38 +0000
  Re: Who gets interviewed to produce use cases? "Lew" <lew@1:261/38.remove-t9h-this> - 2012-08-10 18:38 +0000
    Re: Who gets interviewed to produce use cases? "Gene Wirchenko" <gene.wirchenko@1:261/38.remove-t9h-this> - 2012-08-10 18:38 +0000
      Re: Who gets interviewed to produce use cases? "Lew" <lew@1:261/38.remove-t9h-this> - 2012-08-10 18:38 +0000

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