Thursday, May 31, 2007

Give the people what they want!

Have you ever been part of a project team where you hit your schedule, worked within your budget, delivered a robust working product that the client did not want or use? Frustrating, isn’t it? I asked this question recently in a large group of experienced engineers and was amazed by the response. Apparently, a lot of us have had this experience.

We often define project success as on time and within budget. That misses a big factor. We may be building products right, but are we building the right products? Frankly, the latter is much more important.

That’s why User requirements are critical. Whether you’re using an Agile process or an iterative one (does anyone really do waterfall development anymore?) knowing what the "market" wants and needs is critical to success. After all, quality is in the eye of the beholder.

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