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Something that stood out to me in this article was the author's opinion of how software developers are removed from the subject matter. From my experience I te

Something that stood out to me in this article was the author's opinion of how software developers are removed from the subject matter. From my experience I tend to agree but I hope we can change this. For context, I'm a software engineer and designer with a UX focus. As part of my process to design a system, interface, feature, or fix I first immerse myself into the world of the person who is using the software. What's the environment that these people are working in? What are their motivations and frustrations? What allows them to be successful in their job? Over the last couple of years I've had less and less time to answer those questions. Either because of a high workload or because management didn't see the value in spending time to research the people using our software. That trend is alarming and concerning to me. If we as software engineers are not aware of the people who are using our software, how are we solving the right problems?

linuxftw 8y ago
We're agile now. We don't have a solid view of the problems we need to tackle, we're just given a little user story that says "Plane noses down with these inputs" and we code it up, send it over the wall. The larger the org, the less likely the actual engineers that will design the system are invited to the planning and arch meetings. So when stupid ideas come up in those meetings, there's no one to say "no, that's dumb" because management only knows how to say yes to their boss.
- mch82 8y ago
  The Agile Manifesto calls for frequent conversations and demos with customers so developers understand customer needs and acceptance criteria. If you’re given a story card & there is no customer interaction, then there’s a chance the team is calling itself Agile without actually using Agile.
mch82 8y ago
You’re asking great questions. Keep fighting for the time you need to answer them. I’m 13 years out of college & my perception is companies care more about stakeholder research than they did when I started working, so I think the overall trend is better.

linuxftw 8y ago

We're agile now. We don't have a solid view of the problems we need to tackle, we're just given a little user story that says "Plane noses down with these inputs" and we code it up, send it over the wall. The larger the org, the less likely the actual engineers that will design the system are invited to the planning and arch meetings. So when stupid ideas come up in those meetings, there's no one to say "no, that's dumb" because management only knows how to say yes to their boss.

mch82 8y ago
The Agile Manifesto calls for frequent conversations and demos with customers so developers understand customer needs and acceptance criteria. If you’re given a story card & there is no customer interaction, then there’s a chance the team is calling itself Agile without actually using Agile.

mch82 8y ago

You’re asking great questions. Keep fighting for the time you need to answer them. I’m 13 years out of college & my perception is companies care more about stakeholder research than they did when I started working, so I think the overall trend is better.