I hear it over and over again from technology execs – I know we should spend the time writing specs or working on our process or on architecture or designing a good UI or testing or documenting or - fill in the blank.
Yet, time and time again, I see companies making the same mistakes. It kills me! I asked myself “why do they do it?” After all, it’s so easy to improve your delivery time and quality a little bit at a time. I know it’s hard to find a place to start, but for some companies I see, anything would help them. When in doubt, remember that good requirements make everything else easier!
Then I remembered something I’ve heard repeatedly “The pain of the change must be less than the pain of the status quo”. I get that change is tough, but some of these changes (i.e. good requirements definition) are not that painful. I think a more accurate assessment would be “The fear of the unknown must be less than the pain of the status quo”
Do any of you have less than optimal practices in your product development? We all do, in one way or another. Things can always be better. Why do you stay where you are?
