On Jan 8, 2008, at 6:58 AM, Adrian Howard wrote: > On 7 Jan 2008, at 17:49, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: > [snip] >> Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set >> up to >> build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I >> think. > [snip] > > I think it's worse than that in many situations. Developers get > actively punished when they go listen to folk and go "off track", or > point out issues that may effect the end-user experience. It's viewed > as "making more work" rather than "making things better". > > Personally I think this is the cause of the evil developer-hates-the- > user stereotype in almost all cases. Not a lot due to the way that > developers-are. A lot to do with the environment the developers > work in. > > One of the many reasons I like more agile development environments > that emphasise communication across all the normal silos.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: In our research, it's all about the measures and rewards. What gets measured, gets done. What gets rewarded, gets done well. We regularly come across teams where the culture (and it *is* a cultural issue) rewards great design above all else. In those cultures, you regularly see a focus on team problem solving and great organization-wide communication. We also come across teams where the culture rewards some other factor, such as time-to-market or reduced costs. In those cases, those factors will trump intra-organization communication of design- related issues, except when those issues will drive the reward factor. Want something to happen: build a culture that rewards it. Agile, by itself, isn't more likely to reward good design. Like any methodology suite, it can be bent to fit the existing culture's reward policies. As many teams are now discovering, in the wrong cultures, Agile is just as toxic and waterfall. Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
