Comments on: Changes, Users and Resistance http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/changes-users-and-resistance/ Buy, Build or Ignore? Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:29:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: GarretMott http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/changes-users-and-resistance/#comment-74 GarretMott Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:24:16 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/?p=225#comment-74 Hey Joe - I too liked Avery's quote from the book. How true it is! However, the move from NG to web forum at Data Access is (to me) a different situation. I won't get into a rant about people making things look spiffy while removing/obfuscating utility, but there are a few points I would like to mention. The forum will increase the presence of VDF & DAW on the web. That's good. What isn't so good is that 1) using the web forums is far more cumbersome than the NG for the people who want to answer a question & 2) there is software available for synching the forum & a NG. The software is even free! It (I believe) works off SQL triggers to keep the 2 tables synched instantaneously. Forums seem to be designed from the point of view of someone asking a question, not the people who may answer - whereas NG's make it easy to browse through the questions & answer some. So - why not have the best of both worlds? Shouldn't the mantra of IT/support be "let's make it work for all users"? Get back to work Garret..... Hey Joe -

I too liked Avery’s quote from the book. How true it is!

However, the move from NG to web forum at Data Access is (to me) a different situation. I won’t get into a rant about people making things look spiffy while removing/obfuscating utility, but there are a few points I would like to mention.

The forum will increase the presence of VDF & DAW on the web. That’s good.

What isn’t so good is that 1) using the web forums is far more cumbersome than the NG for the people who want to answer a question & 2) there is software available for synching the forum & a NG.

The software is even free! It (I believe) works off SQL triggers to keep the 2 tables synched instantaneously.

Forums seem to be designed from the point of view of someone asking a question, not the people who may answer - whereas NG’s make it easy to browse through the questions & answer some.

So - why not have the best of both worlds? Shouldn’t the mantra of IT/support be “let’s make it work for all users”?

Get back to work Garret…..

]]> By: Joe Coley http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/changes-users-and-resistance/#comment-73 Joe Coley Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:39:57 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/?p=225#comment-73 Thank you Avery for this post! The book, Getting Real is not a book I'm familiar with, at least up to now! Having taken a look at it with the links you provided I can see that it truly presents much of my "preaching" about what software "should" be! Thanks! Thank you Avery for this post! The book, Getting Real is not a book I’m familiar with, at least up to now! Having taken a look at it with the links you provided I can see that it truly presents much of my “preaching” about what software “should” be! Thanks!

]]> By: Avery http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/changes-users-and-resistance/#comment-72 Avery Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:56:08 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/?p=225#comment-72 Thanks for the interesting perspective. Do you remember the book, [A href="http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php"]Getting Real[/A] by 37 Signals? Here is a relevant quote from that book. [I]Each time you say yes to a feature, you're adopting a child. You have to take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g. design, implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature's out there, you're stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature away from customers and see how pissed off they get.[/I] They are speaking from the software development perspective, what you are addressing from the customer perspective. I am a [A href="http://www.dynamicalsoftware.com/cgi-bin/ViewBlogEntry.pl?id=2"]big believer[/A] in that book and recommend it to anyone involved with producing software. Thanks for the interesting perspective. Do you remember the book, Getting Real by 37 Signals? Here is a relevant quote from that book.

Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. You have to take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g. design, implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature’s out there, you’re stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature away from customers and see how pissed off they get.

They are speaking from the software development perspective, what you are addressing from the customer perspective. I am a big believer in that book and recommend it to anyone involved with producing software.

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