Why You Need Stupid Users

[sarcasm]

The professionals enter the building, their suits, hair and shoes all shiny and stuff. They roll out their charts, the flashy binders, and difficult words. They are very expensive, so they must be good.

Photography by AnyJazz65.

They try to avoid too much contact with the users; the dinosaurs that perform the “normal” work, not the divine “project” tasks. When talking about the users, the professionals always lower their voices, they almost whisper. “They are all nice people, but not as smart as us.”

The trouble with software projects is, at a given moment you will need some kind of user. The professionals try to postpone that moment for as long as possible.

“The users are ok, but they don’t understand our flashy graphs, difficult sentences and perfect haircut.”

For the professionals it is a difficult decision; you need people that for decades do the same work everyday over and over again, decades without additional education; these people will tell you how their business operates, what they do…. It’s like asking the garbage man about Einsteins theories. It is best to ignore them. Or better yet, to dazzle them. Great shiny presentations, screens that flip back and forth with high velocity, throw buzz words towards the users heads… “this is what you want, not?” Putting a little pressure on people never hurt anyone. They are stupid, but you need their sign of approval for the functionality of the software system. It says so in the professional manual.

So, get it signed and bill the bastards!

[/sarcasm]

Bas de Baar, blogging as “The Project Shrink“, is taking his message to the International Project Management community with a vengeance: “Projects Are About Humans. Deal With That!“