Getting to the Problem

Everyone has problems and would like solutions. Sometimes a solution is discovered and now there is a problem implementing the solution. In software development, you get this all the time. I’ve had people admit that they give requests in the form of a solution instead of providing a problem and letting someone come up with the answer. Sometimes they just think they know better.

Someone needs a website where they can enter a column of numbers and get a total. Seems simple enough. Any number of developers could start working on this project. The problem may be the solution.

The first step is to backtrack through the discovery of the website solution. You may have to ask a lot of questions since the user may not remember all of the mental gymnastics involved in this path of discovery. Start with the website itself. Why do we have websites and in particular what is it we like about them? What need do they fulfill. Do others need secure or unsecured accesss? Do you need to access this from different computers? Do you want to avoid installing software on multiple computers?

If none of these are a problem, a spreadsheet can be recommended using a locally installed application. Sharing may be accomplished by incorporating a website to handle files.

I use StackOverflow quite a bit. Often some answers/comments on questions are “Why do you have to do it that way?” or “Why are you doing that at all?”  Techies are not known for their tact especially when speaking to other geeks.

A key point will be to ephasise trying to understand the problem better. There can be a point where there is no rational reason for an answer. Sometimes people just get fed up with the questions or they’re embarased that they don’t have an explanation, but just pull rank anyway. Expectations need to be managed here. Like the website request. You could ask if it is all right if it is slow? You won’t be able to have some features that you would find in Microsoft Excel. Is that OK?

As you work with people over time this usually gets better. Make sure you continue to read their reaction to your questions. If they feel you’re being to tedious, start with the project, but stop along the and pose the questions. Sometimes breaking the time up can help.