Give Them What They Want

--Originally published at Computer Systems Engineering

Just the title of the second chapter of the book already tell us a lot: the clients are innocent and only ask for what they want, telling us especifically what that is.

Am i right? (As if)

How many times has it happened that a client asks you for something and you spend hours doing exaclty what they asked just for them to reject it once you deliver because “It’s not what they asked for”. That for sure will make you angry at the client but you should be angry at yourself too. Think about it, whose fault is it? All the responisbility is not on the client, it is a mistake not to ask enough questions and asssume that that’s how they want it. You end up with a product no one wants and you end up like this in front of the costumer:

 

To avoid this kind of situations is why we need to learn to gather requirements. A requirement is “a specific thing your system has to do to work correctly”. Basically there  are the things the client ask for, so of course we need to listen to the client in order to know what the requirements for a specific product are.

When you speak to the customer about what they want we should make a requierement list, mention it to them and see if both sides are  on the same page. Those requirements are not set in stone, they can change depending on how the product is being developed and additional ideas or second thoughts of clients. That’s why constant comunication is needed.

I havent worked on a mayor project but it sure has happened to me that we divide tasks for some project with my team mates and each “agree” on what we need

do, and that we should put it all together on certain date (because of how we are that date is for sure close to the limit date ups). The problems start to rise when one or more of the team members did something completely different from what it was stated, and the argument that it is always pulled is “I thought this was what i was supposed to do”. And the project ends up being not at all what expected.

That is the moment my rage comes, I get mad at the person for not doing their work properly and get mad at myself for not telling them what to do with more detail.

The solution is: COMMUNICATION

A good old clasic meme: 

 

Well those are basically my thought while reading the chapter. See you next week with more of this.

And remember: Plan before you code