Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it) [LWN.net]

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 19, 2012 11:16 UTC (Sun) by oldtomas (guest, #72579)
In reply to: Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it) by khim
Parent article: Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

A good interior decorator is constantly bringing their client swatches and samples [...]. But they would never discuss dishwasher placement with the client.

This may be a "good interior decorator" according to Joel (who's this guy, anyway?), but not according to me.

And accordingly, he won't get my business. As won't Joel, Or Gnome. Or Unity.

I don't exist? No, in your world I don't.

to post comments

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 20, 2012 8:54 UTC (Mon) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link] (4 responses)

You seriously want to discuss a dishwasher with a decorator?

I dislike such analogies, but that I'd find it terribly odd. I'd like a decorator to focus on what they're good at. Not something boring like which dishwasher. I don't get why you'd talk to a decorator about a dishwasher.

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 20, 2012 11:38 UTC (Mon) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link] (3 responses)

I think he meant that someone forcing this kind of decision on their customers, and worse yet, refusing to hear their complains, makes him a very bad professional indeed.

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 21, 2012 14:02 UTC (Tue) by alankila (guest, #47141) [Link] (2 responses)

Yes, programming is often all about managing expectations. Customers are like elephants in your china store, architecture-wise: they can demand to change things that completely wreck everything and cause costs to balloon and delays to be missed. So you manage what they *can* want by keeping them suitably happy with nondestructive changes, while making sure that they have no input with the critical parts.

This way customers are happy, you are happy, things get done, and the results are good.

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 22, 2012 16:46 UTC (Wed) by knico (guest, #67323) [Link] (1 responses)

Except in the rare case where the customer actually has a good idea.

You see the risk to your carefully crafted system and dismiss the idea without analyzing its potential. This is how your results are good (but not great).

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 23, 2012 10:15 UTC (Thu) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

Even if the customer's idea is good, if it didn't find its way into the requirements reasonably early then implementing it is likely to cause project-management problems.