The Customer Needs a Cat Developed by Your Software Company

A Team is quickly assembled to meet the challenge. The Customer is introduced to the Customer Liaison and told this person will make sure you are a “Happy Camper’ throughout the entire Development process.

The Domain Development team rushes to define the “What” of this Cat. All the nouns for this Cat are discussed and the abstract Cat now lives. It is now time to breathe life into our Cat.

The Product Owner eagerly embraces the Abstract Cat and helps prepare it for development.

The Product Owner helps creates the Backlog “Christmas List” of features and functionality for Cat 1.0 and delivers it to the responsible team members.

The Scrum Master happily states his Development team will create all the “Hows”. The verbs for the Coolest Cat ever seen are meticulously defined.

The Development team proceeds to create the “Baddest Cat” ever developed in the history of civilization as they want the company to be the best “Cat” developer in the world

The Quality Control team tests “Uber Cat” and certifies it as “Too Cool for Color TV” and delivers it to the Product Owner:

“It Alive!” all exclaim!

The Product Owner is ecstatic with “Mega Cat” as it exceeds every vision the Product Owner had for this Cat.

He cannot get this “Wonder Cat” to his Customer Liaison fast enough as he is sure that the Customer will be thrilled with their “Catzilla”.

The Customer Liaison is elated as he has been telling the Customer for weeks that it will be ready any day now.

A quick call to the Customer results in an immediate audience for the presentation of the “Royal Cat”.

The day has come.

The unveiling of the Customer’s Cat is moments away.

The Veil is Removed

… AND THE ROOM IS SILENT

The Customer wanted a seven pound, solid black cat with blue eyes and big paws with six toes (polydactyl).

The unveiled Cat was a twenty-five pound leopard spotted Ocelot that is just this side of a Mountain Lion!

It truly is the “Baddest” cat alive but it failed to meet the vision of the Customer in every way.

Why, what happened,
or should I say
what did not happen?

The dilemma occurs because human beings are involved.

Each team member had a unique vision of a Cat.

This vision was used as their point of reference in their reality.

The Alpha Member of each team in the Development process projected their vision of the Cat and filled the holes for the rest of the members.

There would have been discussion as to the details of the Cat but without guidelines for those details the details would have been altered at each stage of delivery.

Since there was not a clear understanding of the Client’s vision, the outcome was doomed from the very start.

The Ubiquitous Language

The Solution to the Cat Dilemma
is a Common Lexicon
of Terms, Phrases, Concepts and Ideas

Wisdom Pearl # 107 – Technical Insanity

Applying the Same Failing Process

… Over and Over Again Expecting Different Results

…… Is Einstein’s Insanity Definition for Software Development