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Subject:Re: anyone else in the same boat? From:Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 27 Dec 2000 12:39:23 -0600
John Posada sniffed, cattily:
And you are absolutely sure, without a shred of doubt, that you
understand your client's users better than he does. My compliments.
Am I absolutely sure? No. I gather as much information as I can, I make the
best judgment I can, and that's about as close to "absolutely sure" as any
of us are likely to get.
"The client" may not have the users' best interests at heart. They (he/she,
whatever; I'll use the plural) may be much more interested in meeting an
arbitrary deadline, preserving someone's ego, or making a tactical move in
an ongoing interdepartmental feud. If the client really is concerned
primarily with the users and can make a decent case for the way they want
to proceed, I'm not likely to object.
"The client" is not a single unified entity. You may be reporting to
someone in the organization who doesn't have the best vantage point for
understanding the users. Suppose you're dealing with two groups in the
organization: Group A talks to the users every day and is telling you one
thing; Group B never talks to actual users and is telling you an opposite
thing. Who do you listen to? Group B signs your timesheets. Does that make
them "the client"? Or do you take the rest of the organization into
consideration?
If "the client" understands the users and makes the users' needs the top
priority, they're not going to be demanding swill.
Christine Anameier
(standard disclaimer: views expressed here are my own, not my company's,
yada yada yada...)
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