Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Further thoughts on Joel's recent article. I dunno. Seems like a whole lotta not much. I can disagree with his "5 Worlds" breakdown, or his assumption that with shrinkwrap software, "the user interface needs to be easier than average in order to achieve success." I'd also challenge the statement that with internal software "usability is a lower priority, because a limited number of people need to use the software, and they don't have any choice in the matter, and they will just have to deal with it." Also: "lots of internal software sucks pretty badly." Right... right... So I check to see if there's actually a conclusion to all of this, or just more unfounded assumptions about internal software (crap) compared with shrinkwrap (God's Gift to end users), and found this: Steve McConnell, Steve Maguire, and I all come from a very narrow corner: the world of mass market shrinkwrap spreadsheet applications written in Redmond, Washington. As such we have higher bars for ease of use and lower bars for bugs. Most of the other methodology gurus make their living doing consulting for in house corporate development, and that's what they're talking about. In any case, we should all be able to learn something from each other. First of all, just because you develop shrinkwrap software doesn't mean you have higher bars for ease of use. How unbelievably arrogant. The history of shrinkwrap software is littered with lousy interfaces. Any system will be better for having attempted to make it easier to use. Any piece of software will "suck pretty badly" if the development team takes the attitude that usability doesn't matter because of whatever whatever blah blah blah excuse. The point isn't that internal software is from Mars and shrinkwrap software is from Venus. Every development project has a set of design and business goals, sometimes unique and sometimes not. Joel usually gets this distinction, and even seems to at the beginning of his article. That's why one of the things I like about Cooper, and why I'm getting more and more frustrated with reading Joel. Cooper recognizes that you develop software for people. He seems to get it. I've been picking up too much disdain for the customer lately in Joel's writing. Not quite so fun anymore. Not quite as insightful. 11:32:39 PM

As if I needed any more reasons, another one came to my cell phone this afternoon. The client where I'd been working since last November called to talk about some issue or another. He was wondering where I was, if I was still involved in the project, and if I wasn't, who should he talk to regarding his issues. So. Two and a half weeks after I'd put in my notice, and a week and a half after my last day, nobody let the client know that I was gone. Nice. 10:51:04 PM