ISethWebster

Most likely you are sitting there reading this blog over a high speed Internet connection while your chicken cacciatore dinner is being micro-waved and ready in about three minutes and your IFC in theaters movie from your On Demand cable service sits paused and ready to resume once your near-instant Italian food is ready.

Or, perhaps you didn't even have to experience the inconvenience of having to wait until you got home to ready this entry -- you may be sitting there in traffic thumbing through the vast accumulation of all human knowledge with a few flicks of your deft digit.  That's sure better than a trip to the library.

All that assuming you are reading this at all -- perhaps you have chosen to have this entry read to you by your computer so that you are better able to consume the food, or more importantly drive your vehicle.

I should interject at this point that I am huge fan of the amazing technological advances that have brought us such things as high-speed everything, wireless everything, and instant everything -- at a cost that the vast majority can afford... After all, if we had to wait (read: save up some money) what kind of crap would that be?

But, like many others I have noticed that while these instruments have been invented and thrust into our mainstream culture in an effort to improve our lives, and to bring us "closer together" (a popular theme in marketing today), it seems as though the effect has been this idea's antithesis.  With every task we automate and delegate, we become less -- and less a part of our own lives.

Sure, I can beam twenty emails out in an hour (so, I type slowly...) and accomplish in that time what would take many hours by telephone not to mention the days that would be consumed should I have a momentary lapse into insanity and up a pen and paper to send something via the aptly named, "Snail Mail."  But what about the old adage, that life is about "Quality, not quantity?"  We are consumed by the need for speed and for instant gratification.  Just turn on any cable channel and you will see a dozen commercials claiming almost instant weight loss via their revolutionary formula derived from some South African shrub-root.

And whilst I am on the subject of weight loss, I recently undertook the arduous task...  Scratch that -- I am still undertaking the arduous task of getting into shape.  Let's face it -- It's a lifelong task -- you know it yourself even if you don't like it.

I digress.  I started in April at 279 on about the 20th.  Here we are at July 17th and I am sitting comfortably (everything is relative, remember?) on an American Airlines puddle jumper on my way to New York city.  I'm not crowding my neighbors and I am actually able to use my laptop without forcing a dent into my belly.  Specifically, I've lost almost seventy pounds in that time.  Lets see, April-May, May-June, June-July.  Three months.  People have been constantly asking me for my secret, and alas have been consistently disappointed.  Eat right -- Veggies, cut out as much fat as you can, etc.  Learn your BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate: The number of calories that should be consumed by a person to maintain their current body weight based on their activity level) and consume less.  Exercise three or more times a week (I try for 5 times) for thirty or more minutes (ten to reach your target heart rate and twenty minutes maintaining it).

Now, if you watch any of these commercials -- they promise your similar results in similar time (and if you pay attention you'll always read in fine print, or some actually state that you must consider proper diet and exercise... and don't forget the little white letters at the bottom that read, results not typical) -- "I lost 38 pounds in six weeks with ABC Product!"  Lets do some math... 38lbs / 6 = 6.34lbs.  That's 6.34 pounds per week.  I did about six pounds per week without any supplements, and without spending the serious cash involved in purchasing the products themselves, or in some extreme cases the hospital costs incurred after a bad reaction to these non-fda approved weight loss programs.  Did I mention that I feel great?

Tangents aside -- We must stop expecting something for nothing.  We must begin to appreciate our grandmother's/grandfathers advice -- listen to those who came from a simpler time and allow their wisdom to permeate your existence.  It's so simple -- they may not be able to operate your G4, or your Quad Xeon or your iPhone -- but I'd like to remind you of what our recent ancestors handled: Big wars, depressions, recessions, assassinations, conspiracies and how apparently well they did.

Next time you want to see a movie, go and see it in the theater... or rent it.  Next time you want chicken cacciatore, go to a restaurant and order it... or better yet, learn to prepare it.  The next time you find yourself buying a gadget to save yourself time... sit down and do it the old fashioned way.  Don't live your life On Demand, demand that you love your life.

Not long ago I read an article who's name was "The Iceberg Effect."  You may be thinking that this article pertained to the aftermath of the Titanic ocean-liner incident, but in fact it was an article about the dangers of unbridled customer expectations.

In essence the article argues that it is necessary to ensure that the customer only "sees so much" -- as with an Iceberg which has as much as 90% of its mass below the water, and therefore is not readily visible -- so that the customer does not expect that just because she sees the UI elements in place that the functionality has been built to support it.

At Webglimmer, we tend to use a partially compartmentalized approach to developing our customer solutions.  We'll take the database development, and the UI/UX development, and allow two separate teams to perform the required tasks.  The DBA works with the project manager and sometimes the customer to develop a solid schema, and the UXE (User eXperience Expert) works with the project manager and again, the customer, to develop the proper UI and experience.

We then rely on the third team (which consists in part of the same people) to perform the development required to lash the two together.  This buys us a loosely coupled solution with the ability to flex each piece as requirements change.  They always do.

Now this brings us back to my ride on the back of the original author of "The Iceberg Effect."  To use the above approach requires a significant investment by the customer, the project manager, the DBA, the UXE, and so on.  Use cases, requirements and the entire experience should be documented as rigorously as possible up front to eliminate the dreaded scope creep that has killed so many projects or at least the deadlines of past.

The problem is that during development you will invariably need to make adjustments in your designs, strategy and approach -- usually because the customer changes his or her mind, or even more frequently heard is, "Wow!  Now can we make it do this?"  How do we avoid letting the inevitable customer drive to change from causing the dangerous 2 steps forward, 1 step back scenario?

First, learn to be psychic.  Or at least, start learning to intuit the changes that you EXPECT customers to make.  Plan them in.  Then move on to deciding what changes YOU would make.  Plan them in.  Try to think of yourself standing and walking in the customer's shoes while never losing your ability to filter those features, and requests through your expertise.  You may have built many solutions that bear a resemblance to the current project, even when a customer says that they don't want something -- if you've built it for 4 out of 5 other customers -- again, plan it in.  Make sure that what you do is best for the client -- ultimately when told that their solution can't do something later, no matter how hard your try to explain that it was because of a decision that they made during development, they will blame you.

Next, learn to say NO!  Okay, maybe your highest paying client will not take kindly to such a response, but saying something like, "Yes, but not now," will probably suit the bill.  Explain to customers that you are thinking of the deadline, the bottom line and reassure them that because of the extensible (don't use that word) way in which you are designing their solution, this is something that you will be easily able to add later. 

The Iceberg effect that I am referring to is in a word the "opposite" of the one described by the original author.  By looking at a project without getting under the surface you may find yourself later wondering, "how did I miss 90% of this work when planning?"  The Iceberg Effect.

Kudos to our original author who's name I cannot find for drawing such a astute metaphor.