RE: Responsibility

Interesting, you perceive that my approach builds walls and I perceive
that your approach builds walls.  You can see why I hate this media for
communication.  I'm sure we would not misunderstand each other if we
were talking. 

 

Mary Poppendieck

www.poppendieck.com

952-934-7998

 

From: "Kent Beck" <kent-hJ4WY/gWbur3XBa+dPFJ6Fr/[email protected]>

Subject: RE: Responsibility

 

What I see from my perspective that you don't seem to see from yours is

that the customer, those whose lives are intimately affected by the

software we build, is part of the team. Nygard went over this ground

long ago in Participatory Design

http://www.cpsr.org/program/workplace/PD.html. The game where we

separate ourselves (as technical people) from those whose

responsibilities rely on the products we create is a nice, but limited,

game.

 

Is this passing the buck, abrogating responsibility? Not at all. The

customer service representative who will have people screaming at them

on the phone is responsible for transforming that unhappiness into

further business. Saying, "We should know their business better than

they do," sounds to me like arrogance. After I implement 5 CSR systems,

sure I'll know some technical details better than any given CSR, just

through sheer perspective. However, I still won't know what they know in

their guts.

 

The recent dock strike on the west coast was exactly about these issues.

The dock owners wanted to introduce a system that the individual workers

saw as taking away their power and security. Nobody bothered to try to

turn the process into a win-win(-win-win...). As the world gets more

interdependent, "We're from development. We know better." is going to be

decreasingly viable.

 

You pushed a button. I've seen so much harm done by people building

walls instead of bridges. XP is intended as an invitation to build

social networks between people with desires and people with

possibilities. Because it is extended from the possibilities side, folks

on the desire side have trouble seeing the invitation as it was

intended. That's what this list is about.

 

Kent