Creating Effecitve Documentation

[rcauvin]

Even if you're sure that they are the same person, it is useful to consider them as separate roles so that the goals of the person playing each role are addressed appropriately.

Ah, I thought you might be referring to roles.

Regardless, I do believe the user and the person who derives primary value are in many cases the same person (particularly with consumer products), contrary to the apparent implication of one of your previous posts.

[MTalbot]

Hmmm, so if I'm building software to manage and track customer complaints for a call center, I have to deal with three roles - the person who buys the software, who is the CTO, the person who uses the software, the customer service agents, and the end customers, who derive value (or lack thereof) from the customer service delivered.

So, you do requirements for all three roles, or at least, take them into consideration? For the CTO, I have requirements that the software implement all the latest industry buzzwords and have a feature set that can be explained during 9 rounds of golf? What do you do when the customer service that the end customers expect and what the customer service agents can deliver are very different? I think in this case, the primary stakeholder is the customer service agent, and that they're the ones who will decide what the end customers get.

I understand the distinction, but I'm not sure how valuable it is.

Not every distinction is valuable, but you won't know if they are until you've made the distinction and looked at how they are different. Project success is measured in a lot of different ways, not simply by end user acceptance. I might build a software product that customers love (good), but which IT can't support (bad, and ultimately bad for my customers).

[AlanAJ]

I do believe the user and the person who derives primary value are in many cases the same person (particularly with consumer products), contrary to the apparent implication of one of your previous posts.

Not much room for fruitful disagreement here...

I've just been reading Jerry Weinberg's blog on Breaking the Reader Trance. Maybe the intrusion of the user experience into stakeholder goal satisfaction is similar. When my stakeholder goals are not harmoniously satisfied by a consumer product is when I actually experience being a user rather than a stakeholder. And that ain't where I want to be!

Obliviousness metrics, anyone?