I didn't say anything about business analysts, interaction designers,
systems analysts, or domain experts. I would want them on my team if the
team needed their talents, skills and perspectives in order to succeed (cf
Practice: Whole Team). I am suggesting that people can improve software
development by directly involving the people whose lives are directly
affected by the software.
I learned this lesson from Kristen Nygaard, who insisted on direct
involvement of steelworkers (?) on a software project he did in the 60s (?).
His philosophy was that software development should create power for
everyone. While a programmer might find a steelworker "unsophisticated" in a
discussion about software, the steelworker would likely find the programmer
"unsophisticated" (or likely a stronger word) on the foundry floor. Learning
to appreciate each other is part of the value of direct connections.
I think this vision is very difficult to achieve, but striving for it would
make software development more valuable.
Kent Beck
Three Rivers Institute
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: [xpe2e] Practice: Real Customer Involvement
On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 13:06:30 -0800, Kent Beck
No customer at all, or a "proxy" for a real customer,
leads to waste as
you develop features that aren't used, specify tests that
don't reflect the
real acceptance criteria, and lose the chance to build real
relationships
between the people with the most diverse perspectives of
the project.
Does this mean that there's no role on an XP team for business
analysts, systems analysts, customer proxies or any other kind of
'professional customer'?
What about situations where your actual customers aren't very
sophisticated?