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Customer Requirements: training suggestions?

 
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Referencing the bullet points of the book, it looks like a lot of the focus is on the developer - determining what needs to be done, documenting what needs to be done, writing tests to validate the work is properly done, etc. These are all important points.

Does the book also address how to educate the customer about what software development is, how it works, the terminology, what it means to approve requirements, what a change control process is, etc? From my experiences, there are many cases where the customer is so far removed from the technology and development processes that they don't understand how their action or inaction impacts a project. Agile attempts to address this some by having a business person "embedded" on the team to give approvals, make quick decisions and such but I don't see that addressing the problem entirely.

Good topic for a book, by the way. Technical skills are obvious needs for a developer. This topic, and topics covered in the "Soft Skills" book by John Somez are things that developers lack which can help bridge the gap with customer communications.
 
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Hello again, Brain

As far as educating the customer on what exactly software development is and how it works: nope. Also nothing on change control processes etc.

I do understand their importance but they are heavily influenced by what your company/project size looks like: Are we talking about building stuff as a 1-2 person show for local acquaintances or are you building something for a Fortune500 and 300 people involved. Is it enough that you as the programmer-marketer drink a beer with your customer and tell him a bit about what software development is all about, or do you need to bring 100 people across different departments involved? Tricky topic, as the practical solutions will look completely different in each case.


But you are completely right with the general gist: If the customer is so far removed from tech (and I have been part of plenty of such projects) you have to educate him. Actually I could include notes on that in an update of the ebook. Thanks for noting, let me see what I can do
 
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