Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!news.glorb.com!news-out.readnews.com!transit4.readnews.com!news-out.news.tds.net!newsreading01.news.tds.net!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Gene Wirchenko" Subject: Re: Who gets interviewed to produce use cases? Message-ID: <502D38C2.56886.calajapr@time.synchro.net> X-Comment-To: Leif Roar Moldskred Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer In-Reply-To: <502D38C0.56879.calajapr@time.synchro.net> References: <502D38C0.56879.calajapr@time.synchro.net> X-FTN-AREA: COMP.LANG.JAVA.PROGRAMMER X-FTN-MSGID: 1:261/38 922bbe2e X-FTN-REPLY: 1:261/38 2e0e6c15 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=IBM437 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Gateway: time.synchro.net [Synchronet 3.16a-Win32 NewsLink 1.98] Lines: 64 Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:16:41 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.21.70.65 X-Complaints-To: news@tds.net X-Trace: newsreading01.news.tds.net 1345144601 69.21.70.65 (Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:16:41 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:16:41 CDT Organization: tds.net Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:17940 To: Leif Roar Moldskred From: "Gene Wirchenko" To: Leif Roar Moldskred From: "Gene Wirchenko" To: Leif Roar Moldskred From: Gene Wirchenko On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:35:51 -0500, Leif Roar Moldskred wrote: >Leif Roar Moldskred wrote: >> >> Another problem -- or perhaps rather a restating of the first problem >> you mentioned -- is that even users with a very good _implicit_ >> knowledge of their work process often have a poor _explicit_ >> understanding of it. Often, a lot of important business requirements >> are overlooked because the users either plain doesn't realise that >> they're there, or because they take them as implicitly understood. >> >> For the same reason, users are often terrible at prioritising between >> features and choosing between different solutions. Often, the highest >> priority goes to whichever feature the user thought of most recently. >Commenting to my own post here, but I really should add that the above >isn't to mean that the software developers know best and should >overrule the customer on requirements and priorities. Far from >it. (Well, _sometimes_ we should do that for _technical_ requirements, >but only sometimes.) It's still the users that actually _knows_ the >requirements, but sometimes they don't know what they know. It is some of this, some of that. I have worked with one cient for nearly 25 years. I know some of his requirements to the point where I need not discuss them with him. Some are his to the point where I do not know in detail why he wants it. In the middle are the ones we discuss. We respect each other and come up with a plan. >Gathering requirements thus often turn into an explanatory dig into >the user's work process and business, and you often end up with not >only having the users teach the software developers about the buisness >domain but also with the software developers having to teach the users >about requirement gathering. Again, quite. Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko -+- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Dada-1 + Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38) -+- Synchronet 3.16a-Win32 NewsLink 1.98 Time Warp of the Future BBS - telnet://time.synchro.net:24 -+- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Dada-1 + Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38) -+- Synchronet 3.16a-Win32 NewsLink 1.98 Time Warp of the Future BBS - telnet://time.synchro.net:24 --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Dada-1 * Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38) --- Synchronet 3.16a-Win32 NewsLink 1.98 Time Warp of the Future BBS - telnet://time.synchro.net:24