Challenging the Obvious

One of the challenges with obtaining the requirements for large corporate software systems is to obtain the same world-view with all parties involved. For example, when I asked the attendees of a recent workshop how they defined the term “customer”, I was greeted with blank stares and “well, it’s obvious” mutterings.  I prompted further and obtained the following:

  • a customer is someone who bought something from us in the last six months;

  • a customer is someone who bought something from us in the last five years;

  • a customer is someone who once bought something from us;

  • …and several others in-between!

After some discussion, we settled on a definition that satisfied everybody.

This is an example of the sort of misunderstandings that can occur, some of which are subtle and can potentially lead to business inefficiencies. At Agilier, we are experts at helping companies solve problems like these. Please contact us for further details.