No the title of the thread is not meant to be a cheap shot at the stereo-type of a programmers personality.
This is something that I am really thinking about.
I know lots of programmers. They're smart people. They usually keep to themselves and quietly and steadily get a task completed with the dedication of tortoise. They consider their tasks a veritable work of art and craftsmanship and usually take pride in it.
I believe, likely part of the problem, with large projects is that producers, designers, and artists do not really know how to communicate their goals in the kind of language the programmers understand. Non-programmers do not understand programmers well enough to set their goals, expectations, and hopes for a program in ways that make sense.
If you are a programmer, what was one of the biggest miscommuncations that you got from management? What were the consequences? What could the management have done to communicate more effectively?
Joel,
ReplyDeleteYou need a systems analyst.
This is the person who speaks programmer, but has not forgotten how to speak non-programmer. It's sort of like back at IMT. When a customer says their computer won't boot, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are using the word 'boot' in the same way you or I would. They might be staring at a browser window wondering why a website won't load. You need someone to ask the right questions.
Furthermore, once the analyst understands what's needed, she needs to record it in an unambiguous way. Because even people who speak programmer can have miscommunications. I'm sure you've seen this before:
http://www.steve-oh.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/tree_swing_development_requirements.jpg
This is where something called systems modeling comes in. A set of documents is created that breaks the project into small, unambiguous pieces and describes how those pieces interact. These documents are used first in the initial coding, then at the QA phase to ensure that the requirements are met.
Do you know any actual programmers to help out with this?
ReplyDeleteI'm not guaranteeing anything, but I might.
Stuart, a solid third of my friends from undergraduate were computer science majors. Two have already expressed interest.
ReplyDeleteDon't think that I am asking "guarantee" anything by the way. All I really ask for you is to follow this blog, and give feedback as you see fit.
You have a lot more gamer background than I do.
Oh well looks like you know more programmers than I do, lol.
ReplyDelete