Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Systems builders should concentrate on one thing – improving the work of the people who will use the system.

Sometimes we lose sight of what we are doing. We build systems. Why? Well, to make money for our employer. We hope the system makes money for the organization that uses it. This is about business, right?

And then sometimes a non-profit group builds a system for another non-profit group. Money isn’t a factor. Value of some sort is the driving factor. We build the system hoping to bring value to us. That value can be satisfaction or education. The non-profit who uses the system hopes to gain value that is important to them.

Okay, we have money, value, or both. What else?

On the fateful day of Tuesday September 11, 2001 I was in a motel outside of Chicago taking a course on requirements from James Robertson. He and he wife Suzanne have written several edition of their excellent book on requirements. The Robertsons both work for the Atlantic Systems Guild.

Robertson speaks of finding the requirements and building systems in terms of improving the work. “The work” is what people do in any chosen endeavor. There are as many reasons for the work as their are people – well, maybe the number of people squared or cubed or something. The work, however, is the center of their endeavor.

Find the work. Find what people are doing. Try to understand their motivation. Try to understand what eats their time and slows them in their endeavors. Build a system to improve the work.

The short post doesn’t do justice to the work of the Robertsons. I recommend their book and their classes.