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Customer Requirements -Accountability on developers

 
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Hi Marco,


Going by the title of the book it sounds like that developers are accountable for transforming the unbecoming of requirements coming from customers.Don't requirements filters through supposedly knowledgeable Business analysts and Technical specialist before it is translated to developers language.Please throw some light on this.

Thanks
 
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And when they come back six months later and say, “It doesn't count the number of staff involved in selling one boiler,” what are you going to say?
 
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A good BA may add value to the development process by asking a lot of intelligent questions to clarify the real requirements with the customer before you have to implement them. A not-so-good BA will simply act as a dumb pipe echoing the customer's perception of their requirements, just getting in the way when you want to clarify these with the customer yourself.

I've worked on several projects where this was the case, and it turns an allegedly Agile process into what is effectively a waterfall process with few opportunities to clarify/refine the requirements with the customer. In many cases, the first time the customer's requirements encounter any kind of reality check is when a developer looks at them asks "OK, what do they want me to do here, and how would I implement this?". Unfortunately, this can be when they have maybe just a few days to deliver what is in fact a massive piece of functionality that the customer and BA have failed to recognise.

If you as a developer have access to a cooperative and expert customer who is prepared to work with you to resolve questions like this, it will save all of you a lot of pain in the long run.
 
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I can pretty much second everything that Chris said.

@meenakshi
I think the notion that software development is a one way street and similar to a traditional manufacturing process (some people think of a design and then the rest is just people standing at an assmbly line) is simply wrong and does not work like that at all. There is no such thing as a perfect BA/Technical specialist who will work those requirements perfectly and then just give them to you for implementation - especially when implementation circumstances will affect the requirement itself.


 
meenakshi sundar
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Agreed,project which has gone into point of no return with customer being so unhappy about the way things have taken turn on the implementation side,how do developers play out in this situation to make things better for customer.
 
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@Chris

Its hard to come across cooperative and expert customer and a understanding BA ,Given such a scenario how does one equip himself to face such a situation better?
 
meenakshi sundar
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Have the scenarios changed any better after the adoption of lean devolopement models?
 
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We saw a great deal of change in customer s participation when we moved from traditional model to some form of agile specially the frequent CI releases that drastically reduced scope creeps.
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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