Since you asked, this is how I see it as an opportunity (pretty much the best once since the invention of sliced bread):
While we're all trying to figure out what our titles are (and that's our damn fault, politics and posturing in our community be damned), Joel defined an ADDITIONAL position for us that includes all the most important goals of what we're supposed to do anyways, and it's literally 60 percent of the job (the other 20 percent being a pure fashion choice). So he defined 75 PERCENT of the job relating to UX, the rest to communication, is what we're supposed to be good at anyways. And that job, with manager in it's title, pays very well (more than a typical IA position), and relates directly to ROI of the product, even more so than a product manager position. I've had THAT EXACT JOB TITLE, and it rocks. I did it totally from a UX standpoint. (Raise your hands if you can say the same.) But wait, THERE'S MORE. Not only did he do that, but he defined the ratio of program managers to developers, which is very important, because, well, most of the projects we work on have like one IA to 80 developers. He placed it close to that magical 25 percent UX, 50 percent development, 25 percent QA ratio, and let me tell you, in an agile environment, that ratio is MAGICAL. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! He defined functional requirements IN SOME FORM as important. They could be wireframes. They could be use cases. They could be written on butcher paper. But he defined them as HAVING VALUE IN THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS. (Can you say the same about XP or Scrum?) - He didn't say that an MBA should have that responsibility. - He didn't say that a programmer should have that responsibility. - He said, quote "an advocate for the users should have that responsibility." He also said... "The number one mistake most companies make is having the manager of the programmers writing the specs and designing the product. This is a mistake because the design does not get a fair trial, and is not born out of conflict and debate, so it%u2019s not as good as it could be. SNIP ...both sides, but especially the program manager, need to be emotionally detached from the debate and willing to consider new evidence and change their opinions when the facts merit it. SNIP Functional specifications are so important one of the few hard and fast rules at Fog Creek is %u201CNo Code Without Spec.%u201D " He said he even learned from his own mistakes at his own company, and restructured the role so it would be more effective. I do disagree that anyone out of college can do the UX part; and it's up to us to convince him otherwise than complaining about it here (and I'm going to write to him personally). And there's the opportunity -- letting him know the value. On the other hand, we have to respect his opinion. He runs a very profitable company, larger than most of the people on the group, has the respect of his peers (I can't tell you how many times the developers suggested FogBugz over TFS because of it's ease of use for simplified bug tracking), has a great product line, and sold more books than anyone else on this list, I would guess. He also has a farther reach into the software community than all of us put together. It would be better for us to reach out to him and state our case and build bridges, right? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39701 ________________________________________________________________ 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
