J
Johan Bengtsson
I get vague and "impossible" requests at work too, I argue, I get better requests and so on, in the end I know what needs to be done and do that, but I really have to have those answers before I can do it, otherwise I won't be solving the
real problem, and the one making the request in the first place won't be happy anyway. A lot of times don't the people making the requests really know what they want, how could they possibly tell me then?
The same problems exist in closed developement as well as open if the one doing the work don't understand what work needs to be done then it won't be. That is not a difference - it is a
similarity!
A real example from my work:
Some customers to us wanted the possibility to create new simulated mashines by themself, ok I agree to that it would be a nice feature to have. But I could not get any useful explanation about what types and how complex those mashines needed to be, and not a good explanation on what skills the user would need to have. The answers I got was very vague and something in the direction of "drag and drop" some parts here and some parts there conveyor belts, cylinders, and other similar
parts. And that should end up being a simulated mashine. Runnable in real time on a pentium 90MHz. I thought about it and gave a figure approximating how much time I would need to do that and some doubts that it actually would be
runnable in real time on a pentium 90MHz. Then I asked if the customer really needed that feature to be happy or if more simulated mashines was really what was needed I could simulate several mashines in much less than 1/10:th of that time and they would really be runnable on a pentium 90.
The difference here is that I am a programmer - I can make those simulations without making the tool first, because I already have the tool *I* need. Well we did simulate some more mashines and not many have bought them because they thought the ones already in the product was quite enough.
/Johan Bengtsson
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P&L, Innovation in training
Box 252, S-281 23 H{ssleholm SWEDEN
Tel: +46 451 49 460, Fax: +46 451 89 833
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.pol.se/
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real problem, and the one making the request in the first place won't be happy anyway. A lot of times don't the people making the requests really know what they want, how could they possibly tell me then?
The same problems exist in closed developement as well as open if the one doing the work don't understand what work needs to be done then it won't be. That is not a difference - it is a
similarity!
A real example from my work:
Some customers to us wanted the possibility to create new simulated mashines by themself, ok I agree to that it would be a nice feature to have. But I could not get any useful explanation about what types and how complex those mashines needed to be, and not a good explanation on what skills the user would need to have. The answers I got was very vague and something in the direction of "drag and drop" some parts here and some parts there conveyor belts, cylinders, and other similar
parts. And that should end up being a simulated mashine. Runnable in real time on a pentium 90MHz. I thought about it and gave a figure approximating how much time I would need to do that and some doubts that it actually would be
runnable in real time on a pentium 90MHz. Then I asked if the customer really needed that feature to be happy or if more simulated mashines was really what was needed I could simulate several mashines in much less than 1/10:th of that time and they would really be runnable on a pentium 90.
The difference here is that I am a programmer - I can make those simulations without making the tool first, because I already have the tool *I* need. Well we did simulate some more mashines and not many have bought them because they thought the ones already in the product was quite enough.
/Johan Bengtsson
----------------------------------------
P&L, Innovation in training
Box 252, S-281 23 H{ssleholm SWEDEN
Tel: +46 451 49 460, Fax: +46 451 89 833
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.pol.se/
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