Re: Digest Number 135

Mike:

In a former life, I used to work close to the real end users
for whom I developed, many times as a team of one. I really
enjoy working close to the customer, and interpersonal 
communication was usually not an issue.

But, all the projects I have worked on the last 2 years were 
remote. The closest thing I get to a customer is a technical 
person from the company we develop software for.

I am part of a team located in Brazil, and my "customer"
is elsewhere (usually in the USA). Clearly, this is
not an ideal situation.

However, I found it makes a *lot* of difference who you
interface with. The communication abilities of the one who
is in a remote place are apparent, even if you never meet
him/her in person, and are somewhat independent of the 
bandwidth or medium.

We use e-mail, NetMeeting, instant messaging and voice in 
conference calls. A bad communicator doesn't make good use 
of what is available; a person who really wants to communicate
adapts to adverse conditions.

I have interacted with the two types. The bad communicators
were the clear majority: it is not clear to me whether this
is due to corporate culture, to the fact that I never met 
these people face-to-face or them being technical persons.

The most successful and enjoyable project in these 2 years
was the one in which our technical point of contact was a good 
communicator.

I think this is not a coincidence. In this project we talked
daily, and both sides developed a sense of mutual confidence
that allowed the project to succeed.

For me, it is hard to forget that communication is essential.
I have never really believed in remote development.

Jorge


--- In [email protected], Mike Johnson <father@b...> wrote:
> Forgive the nerdish lack for understanding the reference... 
> angler/fishing?  
> 
> Most of my projects are done remotely (XP and/or otherwise), and 
I've 
> noticed that continuous communication is really important - 
regardless 
> of topic... keeping the lines open just allows more opportunities 
for 
> work to slip in...   Any project that had less that two days a week 
of 
> talking with a customer dies... the ones that really fly are daily -
 
> even if you aren't 100% on topic.
> 
> I thought this was a fundamental idea behind XP - creation is a 
> continuous dialog... surprisingly, its easy to forget when working 
> remotely..
> 
> I hope I didn't sound like I was fishing.
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> 
> [email protected] wrote:
> 
> >There is 1 message in this issue.
> >
> >Topics in this digest:
> >
> >      1. Re: Drummer
> >           From: George Paci <george@r...>
> >
> >
> 
>_____________________________________________________________________
___
> 
>_____________________________________________________________________
___
> >
> >Message: 1
> >   Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 16:57:11 -0500
> >   From: George Paci <george@r...>
> >Subject: Re: Drummer
> >
> >Mike Johnson wrote:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>Having run a few groups in my time, You need to have a "drummer" 
who
> >>keeps asking questions, you need a weekly IM meeting, even if 
just to
> >>talk about the kids and stuff...
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >OK.  Anyone here have glow-in-the-dark skin? Or live undersea?
> >
> >--George Paci
> >  We used to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein after hours, and it 
did
> >  a lot for the whole "I got your back" mentality in the office.
> >                    -- http://slashdot.org/~Marsala
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
>_____________________________________________________________________
___
> 
>_____________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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