There is a natural inflection point the moment developers commence their work. The fuzziness of the business world must, one way or another, be resolved into code. Telling developers to ‘be flexible’, ‘remain open-minded’ or ‘embrace change’ is not very helpful. Unfortunately, that’s precisely how some business folk and managers speak to the technical team.
‘Here’s my grand vision; I don’t know the specifics; you figure them out, but don’t take too long (because we have an arbitrary deadline)’. Yet, in reality, the compiler is a very unforgiving taskmaster and demands to know every little detail. Should it be a variable-length Unicode string or a fixed array of Ascii characters? Can it be modified after initialisation and should it go on the stack or the heap?
Most clients don’t know or care about this level of detail, but that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. What if the business wants to launch in a new region? Then localisation and choice of string become front of mind. Hopefully, the requirements surfaced this future need. How about low-latency transfers and fast processing at the receiver? Different considerations then become important.
It wouldn’t be reasonable to expect non-technical folk to really understand every technical decision the developers must make, but equally, it’s not reasonable to be ignorant and yet demand faster delivery without considering what gets sacrificed in doing so. Anyone can confidently use the term ‘API’ in a conversation, but it doesn’t mean they know what it is, or how it works. Don’t be that executive or manager.
Better Software UK specialises in software requirements for Legacy System Replacement 🔥; particularly for remote, outsourced and offshore development teams working in financial services.