One of the most difficult aspects of creating software is enhancing the communication between users and designers. Let’s listen in on a typical discussion between an analyst (Khalil) and a manager (Charlie).
| Charlie: | But you said the entire project would be finished three months ago. Now you’re telling me it will take another six months? |
| Khalil: | Look, we were on schedule until a couple of my people quit. The real problem is that your staff kept changing their minds. When we started the marketing research system, you said we did not have to worry about tracking customer coupons. After everyone signed off on the requirements step, you suddenly decide to add these features. We had to go back and start over. That’s why we’re behind the original schedule. |
| Charlie: | Wait a minute. We didn’t care about the coupons until our competitor suddenly decided to expand operations in the Western region. I can’t control what our rivals do. I don’t remember “signing off” on anything. All I know is that once a month, you sent me a whole stack of papers to read that had nothing to do with my job. And after that first week of meetings, I never saw you for six months. If you had stopped in sooner, I could have told you about the coupons. |
| Khalil: | This is a big project, and we have been busy. If you want the coupon tracking, we’ll do it, but it’s going to take another six months. You’re lucky we can even squeeze it in. We’ve got other problems. Your employees can’t agree on the form and content of some of these reports. We need you to pick one type. Also, to save time, we’re going to skip this first report and just give you the combined data on this second report. We don’t see any reason to duplicate the data. Last, we need to know the formula you use to make this calculation. |
| Charlie: | No. We need all of the reports exactly the same as we use now. Don’t change anything. I don’t know the exact formula. I think Michele has it. Ask him. Uh oh, I have another meeting in two minutes. Don’t change the reports, just add the coupon tracking. Oh, and we have a new employee (Jack) and he has some great new ideas. Be sure you talk to him. |
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Six months later... |
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| Khalil: | Hi, I’m Khalil. What happened to Charlie? |
| Michele: | She was promoted to marketing VP. When are we going to get the marketing research system? |
| Khalil: | It’s in alpha test now, but we’re going to wait on the new 9350 series before implementing. We’re having some I/O channel problems, plus I think the 9350 will support Token Ring directly. |
| Michele: | Huh? I don’t know what you’re doing, but we needed this system a year ago. We’re desperate. Jack created this great spreadsheet program. It gives us some of the reports we want now, but your staff won’t give us access to the data we need. |
| Khalil: | I can write a COBOL program to pull out some data for you, but we can’t let your spreadsheets change any of the information. We can’t trust the PCs, and there’s no way to set up the security and integrity tests we need. You’d be better off waiting until we get the whole system running. |
| Michele: | Well, we can’t trust you either. We’re just going to keep working on the PCs. At least we have something. Anyway, I’ve got bigger problems right now. I just heard that we’re expanding into New England by buying out another company. I have to fly out there and check out their marketing plans and hire a couple more staff members. |
| Khalil: | What? No one told me. We’ll need a bigger computer, and we have to change . . . Wait. Do you know what computer that company is using? |
Questions