Agile Business Coach

Why Fuzzy Versus Hard

Consider the following two diagrams, which one feels more complete? Which one would you feel more comfortable giving feedback on.

Normally the feedback of business users is very poor when presented with a word document or visio / powerpoint diagram with hard lines and square corners. The feedback when presented with pencil or pen drawing is much better. Why is this. The reasons are as follows:

1. The business user perceives that the business coach has spent a lot of time and effort on the document / drawings and does not want to upset them by telling them things that are wrong. They will wait until they get to the UAT when they can change the system.

2. The business user assumes a lot of thought has gone into the document and does not want to appear stupid by asking obvious questions.

3. It is difficult for the business user to understand the document / diagrams so they just sign off so that the development will proceed. They do not want to be a bottleneck.

In each case the problem is that the business user perceives that a lot of effort and therefore thought has gone into the document. Drawing the diagrams by hand gives the impression that little effort and thought has gone into the diagrams. In actual fact the hand drawn diagrams have probably had more thought because the business coach needs to prepare not only a diagram but also the story that they are going to tell the business user.

The other good thing about hand drawn diagrams is that it encourages the developers to challenge the results of analysis as well. It also makes the developer think as they transfer any models into code.

Posted by chrismatts at February 17, 2004 4:42 PM