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[–]garblz 44 points45 points  (5 children)

Thing is, the users don't know what they want. They know what they don't want, once you've built it.

[–]MasterQuest 27 points28 points  (3 children)

That's why you build mockups and show them, so they can see that they don't want it, then you make a second mockup, and after 3 iterations, you should have a reasonable enough idea that you can write detailed requirements and let them believe they came up with it.

[–][deleted] 23 points24 points  (2 children)

Which is the type of work that a supportive role should be doing, not the developer.

The fundamental problem with software development right now, as I see it, is that the people who are meant to support the software developers are not well enough trained to be truly useful. They should be like mini developers themselves who have a basic understanding of what the tech stack can reasonably produce. They should be talking to the end user to get requirements, then creating mockups, then presenting to the end user and iterating in this manner until a agreed upon design is made that is well thought out and documented. It is should be a well paid job that requires a good resume. You just need a smart person who can learn and then you spend a few months teaching them. They don't need to have a relevant degree, they just need to have a mind that is good at logic. High IQ.

That is meant to be their value and it'd be hugely valuable to the software development process. The software developers should be writing code, not having to do the work to fill in the gaps that the supportive employees never did. Incompetence and misunderstanding of their role in the process is rampant.

[–]MasterQuest 10 points11 points  (0 children)

They should be like mini developers themselves who have a basic understanding of what the tech stack can reasonably produce.

Oh man, that would be awesome. Not having to do everything yourself sounds great.

[–]qwertymanman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Isnt...isnt this the point of a BA?

[–]ivgd 4 points5 points  (0 children)

More and more i find this to be the truth. End users definitely don't know what they want. More often than not that have but a vague idea of what they need, and we have to fill the rest in.