Re: [tlug] [OT] Good IT Resume

["Keith Bawden" <keith@example.com>]

On 7/26/07, Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Jul 2007, Josh Glover wrote:
>
> > My problem is...with the spec-free approach advocated by Curt. *That*
> > is what I am claiming will not scale below excellent engineers.
>
> Let me clarify: I am nowhere near "spec-free." "Low ceremony," yes.
> "Just in time," yes. But not "spec-free"; I ask for or help design a
> specification whenever I feel the need for one.
>
> Say someone says, "there should be a login box on that page." That's not
> much of a spec., but it is one. A few days later, I show them the page
> as I'm hacking away on it, and they say, "no, put it on the right hand
> side of the page, there. [Points.]" "No, no, underneath that status
> display." "And fix the colours because it shouldn't stand out as much as
> it does on the home page." "Yeah, no, wait, I we want to use the colours
> from that other page." I show him the page. "Yes, those colours, not the
> ones you just used." "That's it."
>
> Does that sound like an unhappy customer and a specification failure to
> you? Do you really think he'd rather have been thinking about that, and
> trying to visualise it in his head, in a half hour meeting a few days
> earlier rather than just looking at the actual product now and saying
> what needs to be changed?

I have worked on a project that went almost the way you have described
above. When I joined the project the boss had a poorly written
contract between him and the client, there were no written specs or
project goals. We eventually started using some high fidelity mock ups
and iterated through those until we got something that the client
agreed they wanted.

We then started building. At each stage we included the client in much
the same way as you suggested. I'm not joking when I say that every
single element of the design was changed during this process, and
large chunks of functionality was dropped, changed and added as we
went.

In the end we took screen shots, ask the client to sign them and state
they agreed the product was what they wanted. They did this and still
failed to pay the final invoice.

This fiasco has currently been with the lawyers since November of last
year. So far the problem seems to be that there was a distinct lack of
"detailed specifications" signed off on at the start of the project
and that the initial contract was so vague that it is unclear which
side is in the "right".

In the end from where I stand it is our teams manager that was
responsible for managing and administering the situation better. After
all the client had come to us and said we are very happy with the
product (an Internet TV station) and that it had made over 1,500,000
in the first 7 days of service. Maybe the client was happy with us
hacks but not with our management team...

So to sum up we had a happy client, a crap contract, a shed load of
high fidelity mock ups that were made in the early stages (were not
signed by anyone), a series of signed screen shots of the final
product, the product is in use and making money, and a finaly invoice
as yet un-paid.

Regards, Keith