Three things you need to know before they
jump out and bite you in the you-know-what


1. CAPTURED VS. NON-CAPTURED DATA

Here's a scenario many managers have experienced. Once in a while an application user (the customer) will approach the application developer (the programmer) and ask for a "slight change" in the application.

The experience can often be stressful and frustrating for both. Usually the frustration stems from a difference in perceptions and assumptions between the two parties. The customer frequently sees his request as "such a small, simple thing." The programmer looks at the request and says, "Sorry, simple it's not."

Here's a simple framework that will help both parties see each other's imperatives with somewhat more mutual understanding.

DATA ALREADY CAPTURED? If the "slight change" being requested makes use of existing data that the program already captures, effecting the modification is relatively easy. Relatively. The requested slight change may call for reorganizing a report format or a writing a trivial change into the algorithms. Mind you, the work involved can still be substantial, but relatively less so than the other possibility described below.

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