Potash Valley

This morning I had a new mail from a customer asking for some advice. Currently we have to develop a new system and had a few meetings to discuss about the project, it's feasibility, and also to define a plan. The next step now is to gather the business requirements. But the question which arises is : "Who has to do the business requirements".

The answer we had was obvious: "The business people". But it reminded me of an episode of The Simpsons. In this episode Homer discovers he has a half-brother, Herb, who is also the head of a big automobile manufacturer. During this episode Herb asks Homer to design a brand new car and that he has full power to decide. He defines the requirements, and the engineers produce it, as requested. The car was produced, as requested. Disaster.

What I want to say is that when a house is built, an architect should be in the process because he has some experience of the domain, has already faced a lot of problems and thus their solutions. When a car is designed it's the same. And for software ?

The business should not define requirements alone. Because Software Architects or Program Managers are paid for that, and because an advice is better to be given before everything is done than after. This could be to prevent from failure, but also to suggest features or behaviors that business wouldn't have imagined. And with a little chance, it can also make the difference between delivery and success.