Soft Side of IT

In celebration of Barack Obama winning the US Presidency, here is a great talk with Barack Obama

This was the first Obama appearance I saw & it blew me away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4yVlPqeZwo

This talk was at Google in 2007, where he talked about:
- Committing Science & Innovation
- Open internet & net neutrality
- Google for government
- Why he was running for 2008 presidency
- Restoring US status in the world
…

Even after going through all the craziness for a year, what he said in this talk is pretty close to his campaign by the end. This really shows how much integrity he has to his word.

Go watch this video, it’s definitely worth knowing what potential future is to come for the internet & other technologies.

I have been on vacation for the last 10 days & I will start posting again in 1 week or so.

Sorry for the delay
Cheers,
Ian

Here is a insight talk from David Pogue:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_pogue_says_simplicity_sells.html

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Why the soft side matters?
David Pogue describes the issues pretty well with talk at the TED conference. It’s funny & a few 2 minute techie show tunes.

In systems I have used, there is usually a plethora of functionalities; but most of the them takes forever to find & several tries to make it work.

David takes this issue on the user side & describes day to day frustrations of everyone.

Adding function vs making it simpler to use

Your solution can be the best in the world, but if your design is not good, no one will use it. Easy is hard, and the hardest part is not deciding what to add, but what to leave out.

So What? … because Simplicity Sells.

“Can we move the logo a bit higher?”

All developer & web designer probably hear something similar to this before. After days/weeks/months of work to make the system work, rather than commenting on the hard work or the brilliant way to solution a request, the user first comment was on the trivial part.
It drives developers crazy!

This is the equivalent to you prepared & cooked the whole thanksgiving dinner from scratch, and then some at the table says “the turkey is a little bit dry”.

For developers:
Remember the interface is first thing the business user sees, so view it as the warm up to the discussion.

For business analysts & business users:
When you start off with simple changes, just say “Let’s start off with the easy stuff”.

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Here is a related video on product changes called: The Process
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVb8EC1Y2xM

 
Last post, I brought up the a basic problem with confusions that come up for anyone that has dealt with IT.

So what can we do to make sure IT understand what we want?

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Here are 3 essentials to do to cope with this:

Meetings
Yes, I said it … Meetings has some value. IT people think differently than operations & they think differently than finance … Actually they all have different languages with millions of acronyms.

The meetings can visualize the problem or at least picturing the solutions. Just make sure the details, confusions & decisions are writen down, so it can apply to …

Requirements & Specifications
Here is why we split out requirements & specification.

• Requirements is to describe what users needs, wants & limitations.
• Specifications are the list of to dos & the details of the design (It’s similar assignment sheet that we got in college for project, just longer & more details.)

Many times we forget about this & annoyed that we have to write 2 documents … Then we setup to be upset on a result.

Change Request
When application can be seen, tons of suggestions start flowing in. This is where IT would put all the suggestion into one bucket & put into a change request, while ask for more $$$ & approval for the unexpected work.

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NOTE: These are not best practices, these are just case where a freelancer or small business development shop would face to make sure their customer get what they want. Larger companies will have more complex & detail processes. 

If anyone has use other ways to handle of the issue.
Please reply through e-mail or comments.

Have you ever order some food & have a image of what it would be … but you got completely different?   For example: If you order a medium-well burger and imagined a juicy burger with steak like texture; When it arrives, you got a hybrid of sloppy joes & a burger from a big fast-food chain.

You essentially kind of got what you ordered, because it was up to spec, although it was not what you were hoping for. This happens quite a bit in IT; When a user request for an addition part/enhancement to a system.

Here is a common scenario for an enhancement process:
1. use request a change
2. user describe the change
3. Business/system analyst change those description into specifications list
4. Develop get list & figure what the user wants
5. Developer code to spec
6. User gets the change & say that’s not what I was looking for
7. Sent back with a ton of changes to the developer
… everyone is pissed off & think the other people are idiots

What might of went wrong?

• User could describe what they were looking for in word
• User described a solution, not the problem
• Business system analyst didn’t know what the user really wanted
• Business analyst didn’t emphesize which specs was important/key
• Developer didn’t know the business need or the reason for the enhancement
• Developer literally follow the specs word by word
• With good intentions, the developer added what they think might help the user

Any of this is a very common reason that a IT project often gets delayed & why outsourcing failed for so many. 

As I’m writing this, I ordered a spaghetti bolognese & I got one that smelled & kind of tased like old rags … irk & yet how timely?  =P

I saw this web surfing Cookie Monster comic strip from a Gizmodo post a while back and I still giggle every time I see it. I kept imagining cookie monster thinking: “What do you mean delete cookies? “

Another classic example is the any key from 20 years ago:
“Press ANY Key” … “Where is the ANY key?“.

So many times, when we communicate what is clear to us, can be confusing to others.

That’s not what I meant
One of clearest realization of this was when a friend of mine was contemplating on a choice. As a guy who was studying computer science, I talked about trees as in decision trees. When she listened, she imagined walking towards 2 trees in a split path & picking which to go towards.

And I clicked, realizing she has no idea what I was talking, but listened as much as she could understand.

Take away
Next time, when you want to explain anything, take a conservative assumption on what you think they know & start from there.

Make sure you are communicating to their understanding, not just yours.

I am sitting in a local Starbucks and the coffee table has been wobbling as I’m typing this. The lure of fixing the stupid table was too strong for me to ignore, then I realized it’s ITs nature to fix things.

Here what I did:
Wobbling table (Problem) 
-> I just slide the table with a folded newspaper (Fixed)
-> The paper is ticking out on the pathway (Problem)
-> Rotate the wobble leg of the table towards the wall (Fixed)
-> The metal leg & the floor is making loud annoying sound when rotating (Problem)
-> May be it might be better use an extra coffee lid (Alternative)
-> Lift up the slightly heavy table with rotate (Fixed)
-> Check if its still wobble? (Test)
-> Nope, good … What am I going to write? (Problem)
…

If you multiple that by a ten & all done in your mind; then you would know how an usual developer think when given a bug.

Developers mind spins 100 mph to find solutions & bugs, that’s why IT are very solution oriented & our nature to fix things.