Re: Re: Summing up and moving on (I hope)

Ron Jeffries wrote:


> On Friday, December 13, 2002, at 7:47:36 PM, Bill Walton wrote:
>
> > I've found the pervasive use of the word "user" to be one source of that
> > perception.  The term has mostly negative connotations in our society
since
> > it's often short-hand for "abuser" as in "drug user."  Another source of
the
> > perception comes from the experience of having a programmer come in,
spend
> > too little time with a domain expert to make them feel comfortable that
the
> > programmer really understands their job and how a piece of software can
help
> > them.  Then not come back until the software was "done" and it wasn't
what
> > the business person really needed.  Another source of the perception of
> > disdain derives from the dress / hygiene "code" which says to the
business
> > person like "I'm more important than you.  You can tell because you have
to
> > dress nice and I can wear jeans and not wash my hair."
>
> I am quite disturbed by the rank prejudice and characterization of an
entire
> profession and class of people in this manner. This was outrageous when
you just
> hinted at it and worse when expanded. No wonder you have such trouble
listening
> to technical people: apparently you hate them.

I have no idea where you're coming from with this.  I'll presume the best
and assume you did not read Dale's post requesting examples of the kinds of
experiences that caused friction between IT groups and business-side folks
back in the '80's that fed the adoption of outsourcing.  I too was quite
disturbed by the reputation of IT groups.  I was a programmer in product
development during most of that time.  I left Compaq rather that be
"absorbed" into the IT group in a reorg (I was, at that point, part of a
specialized IT-type group serving the product engineers doing CAE).  Three
years later, when I reentered the "big corporate arena," I left Houston and
moved to DFW to join Sabre rather than do IT work.  The product I was hired
to work on was cancelled by the Chairman between the time I accepted the
position and the time I got there.  I got assigned to run an IT group.  So I
decided to own the problem and figure out how to fix it.  As far as
"technical people," I've always considered myself technical.  It wasn't
until I began associating with XP folks that I found out that testing,
requirements definition, architecture, and project management, all functions
I've considered and were considered by the customers I served to be
technical, that I found out I was wrong about that.  Hate them?  What an odd
conclusion for you to come to.


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get 128 Bit SSL Encryption!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/CBxunD/vN2EAA/xGHJAA/NhFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
extremecustomering-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/