Splitting Business and Technical Responsibility

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Splitting Business and TechnicalResponsibility
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Key

• One key to our strategy is to keep technical
  people focused on technical problems and business
  people focused on business problems. The project
  must be driven by business decisions, but the
  business decisions must be informed by technical
  decisions about cost and risk.

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Business has the power

• Business feels fit to dictate all four variables
  to Development. "Here is what you will do. Here
  is when it will be done. No, you can't have any
  new workstations. And it better be of the highest
  quality or you're in trouble, buster. It is
  impossible!
• Cost, Time, Quality, Scope

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Development has the power

• When Development is in charge, they put in place
  all the process and technology that they never
  had time for when "those suits" were pushing them
  around. They install new tools, new languages,
  new technologies. And the tools, languages, and
  technologies are chosen because they are
  interesting and cutting edge. Cutting edge
  implies risk.

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Choice?

• Ferrari or the minivan?
• Ferrari.
• "Do you want the Ferrari for 200,000 francs or
  the minivan for 40,000?
• Maybe minivan.

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What to Do? (1)

• business people should choose
• The scope or timing of releases
• The relative priorities of proposed features
• The exact scope of proposed features
• (they can not make decision without knowing the
  result)
• the development organization must contribute
• Estimates of the time required to implement
  various features.

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What to Do? (2)

• Estimates of the consequences of various
  technical alternatives.
• A development process that suits their
  personalities, their business environment, and
  their company culture.
• What set of practices they will use to begin
  with, and the process by which they will review
  the effects of those practices and experiment
  with changes.

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Choice of Technology

• Not a purely technical decision, actually a
  business decision.
• If customer says something, development must
  explain the consequences. Then the business
  people can make a business decision.
• Once a technology has been introduced into a
  company, someone has to keep it alive as long as
  it is in use.