Picture This
Not long ago I attended the Aras ACE 2013
Conference. Some of the underlying
themes included 'Be Different', 'Do More', and 'Resilient PLM'. In one of the sessions a business need
requiring a change or customization to an Aras Innovator feature was presented
to a group of implementation and solution providers. A number of possible alternatives and
approaches were discussed, including one that was very elegant. All of these would have addressed the
business need in various capacities.
However, none of them filled the customer's wants. What immediately came to mind though was a
tire swing cartoon that I have seen over the course of nearly thirty years of
IT experiences. I recently ran across “tree swing pictures”
which I will come back to the comic in a little bit.
Here was a room full of well-educated individuals. Many
of them true software developers. Others
were engineers. They all understood what
out-of-the-box features and functions existed.
They felt that they understood the business need. They felt they knew where in the system a
modification would need to be made. They
felt they understood the desired end result.
What they did not have was the simple solution design.
They did not have a process document or a use case. They did not have a full set of requirements
to work from. This group of individuals,
I included, set off to try and build a solution without some key artifacts and
project collateral. Isn't this at the
core of what all of us in consulting services are challenged with when we
engage a customer (internal and/or external)?
Are we not attempting to address and solve their business needs with
tools, systems and processes? Are we not
attempting to fix “it”, whatever “it” happens to be?
So now let me go back to the tire swing comic. As I read through the comic (see image below),
I was reminded of a hundred key points that I could make. However, two very simple points really stood
out;
1) many times having a list of
requirements is not enough to develop the desired solution
2) everyone has their own
perspective of both the need/problem and the solution (see my previous
Bulldozer post)
Requirements are very important. Even more important is a clear and complete
vision, (sometimes a picture) of the whole situation. Having a complete vision, an image, or a
picture of the end solution to start with can save time, money, and even
extended periods of frustration. Being
able to clearly communicate a solution can be the difference between success
and failure.
Lesson: In the case of the tree swing, a picture is worth
more than a thousand words.
Take Aways:
·
Spend the time up front to capture requirements,
even a picture is necessary.
·
Get acknowledgement / confirmation that your
picture matches the customer's picture.
·
Whatever tool you use to gather, manage, and
collaborate requirements, leverage to deliver value. For me, there is a very nice Requirements
module for Aras Innovator that was developed by Nate Brown. (Links to his presentations at ACE 2012 and ACE 2013)
Side Note: The
cost of change (time, money, and emotional capital) rises drastically the
further along your development path you go and the closer you get to the end of
your effort. I came across the following
graphic and felt that it (the image) gave an industry accepted visual.
