Saturday, January 31, 2009

Meeting expectations and understanding requirements

According to my cat, this is a completely unacceptable situation: an empty bowl!



Empty bow!?!?



No matter that the bowl actually contains food and bits are scattered on the floor.  No - from my customer's point of view, this does not meet expectations.


So, it's a good thing that I am very familiar with the customer's requirements, and can remedy the situation:



Full bowl!


Huh? There's less food than before! What's going on here?


Since I am very familiar with this customer, I know the requirement is that the bottom of the bowl be covered


That's all. Simple really, if you understand that "full" means different things to different people (erm...species). Lesson for today: Until the requirement is known, expectations cannot be satisfied.

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