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Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

Requirements Ridicle - the other requirements denial

There is another type of requirements denial. I've noticed this in the past but I didn't know how common the phenomenon was. I think I'll call it Requirements Ridicule. It's probably an indication of more substantial communication issues between the client and the vendor but Requirements Ridicule is a symptom that is easy to spot.

Requirements Ridicule is when the client requests a requirement and the vendor, rather than try to under the drivers for the requirements and work through any communication issues, immediately interprets the requirement as the most ridiculous nonsensical self-contradicting statement that the client could have possible meant. The vendor then immediately says the requirement doesn’t make sense.

For most IT projects, where the client isn't an expert in requirements analysis or software development, this practice is entirely inappropriate. The client will still want the requirement to be met; but it's likely that it's either not the true requirement or has been misinterpreted by the vendor. As the vendor isn’t trying to determine the real requirement what is actually implemented will most likely be ridiculous.

Not only is the implementation of the requirement likely to be ridiculous but the vendor will be out to prove that the requirement is ridiculous. Developers will decide they are not responsible for implementing this requirement with any degree of quality because it is inherently ridiculous. In fact the long suffering developer (who in large projects isn't to blame because they didn't collect the requirements) will tell their manager that the requirement is probably not what the client really wants but the manager tell them to develop it anyway.

In the end, developers wont consider that deadlines apply to the implementation of this requirement because it is so inherently ridiculous that of course it's going to take a long time to implement! I'm not blaming developers here, by the way. I rarely condemn developers as they have already been condemned to a life of confusion and frustration working for bad IT managers.

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