RE: [AM] Article of Interest in CIO Magazine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: J. B. Rainsberger [mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ] 
> > I like to think that I develop software with the same objectives as
> > everyone in this group, and it is somwhat often difficult 
> to describe 
> > the agile process and benefits in a way that satisfies the 
> reluctance of 
> > potential clients to employ it.
> 
> But clients don't employ Agile programming techniques. Clients employ 
> programmers who might use Agile programming techniques. 
> Clients employ 
> planning/requirements/communication techniques that may or may not be 
> Agile-minded. What would it take for clients to be clients and let 
> programmers be programmers?

I think the rot started with the PC - then clients (and managers, users, and
so on) began to assume that they knew about IT, because they had a PC on
their desk (or their child was doing all sorts of clever stuff at home), and
how hard could it be? </cynicism>

In the <censored - I'm not *that* old, am I?> years I have been gracing this
wonderful profession <g>, I keep meeting the same view from the users (with
the exception of one company, my very first junior programmer job, that had
a fully integrated application suite. No interfaces, no data re-entry,
instant update to everyone who needed it. Written in a FORTRAN based
language, running on Prime (anyone else remember them?) The 'Integration'
soapbox is calling...). That IT is a problem, a burden, and an obstacle to
getting their jobs done. 

The users don't trust us - in-house IT is regarded as a drain on their
resources, and consultants are worse. They know that the enterprise can't
live without IT, it just isn't feasible to employ that many clerks these
days (and they couldn't keep track of phone calls or electricity consumption
or bills issued and paid manually any more), and they think that we have
them over a barrel. And they have been to way too many presentations about
the latest, greatest silver bullet - sometime, on a crowded commuter train,
get up and shout 'BPR' and see how many people dive under their seats... 

The users, clients, business, whatever we want to call them, have
experienced too much pain where it hurts them most (in money, and in effort
expended to run the business), and so they are not inclined to take our word
for anything without a clear understanding of what we are suggesting, how we
intend to do it, how it is better than the way they have done it so far, and
what the chances of failure are. And failure includes all sorts of stuff now
- like not reducing their pain enough, or failing to get the whole of the
legacy system turned off, or taking too long and not delivering as much as
they thought we meant (not just what we said). They also want reassurance
that they (personally) will get more out of it that they have to put in.

So, when we go in and suggest doing something new (Agile Modelling, XP,
Enterprise Architecture, migrate to Linux), we are regarded with all the
trust of a child for a smiling dentist. They remember all the times we
assured them that it wouldn't hurt a bit.

Which boils down to: the problem isn't with explaining the Agile approach -
it is with winning the trust of the clients. And it isn't a problem for the
Agile community - it is a problem for everyone who works in IT.

Heading back behind my parapet now (it has been a bit busy here lately),

Dagna

Dagna Gaythorpe
Data Architect
International IT
> tttt COLT TELECOM GROUP PLC
> Beaufort House, 15 St Botolph Street,
> London EC3A 7QN
t   (+ 44) 020 7 390 7896
f   (+ 44) 020 7 947 1176
e [email protected]


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