Developers Deliver Value, Customers Dream

I read J.B.'s post recently and that combined with an internal conversation about a few issues at about the same time really helped to solidify something for me. That is the customer dreams and the developers implement.

The customer's job is to come up with concepts that will allow them to add value to their business. The technical details of the concept are not the concern of the customer and the customer shouldn't let the technical details interfere with The Vision. Then the customer articulates The Vision to the development team via Stories. So, there shouldn't be any technical detail in the stories, just the concepts that when combined as a whole will make The Vision a reality. Then the developers can put a cost on the stories. This feedback to the customer will help them determine which stories (and how many of the them) implemented in which order will give the business the quickest value.

In theory, a customer could come to a team of physicist and give them stories for a replicator. This is their Vision and they see value in having it implemented. If the have the resources to throw at this over the decades or centuries, then there may be value in persuing this. But the cost shouldn't be a factor when creating the vision.

Customers dream. We developers will do our best to make them come true...

So Excited

Today we finished the first story on a new product and I found myself very excited. I almost felt a bit foolish that I was so excited, because there didn't appear that much to be excited about. It was only the initialization story for the product; svn setup, cruise control set up, etc to the point where we now can "ship" a new empty zip file.

But on reflecting on the day, I've come to the realization that this story was the best story we've ever implemented and it looks like we have prepared ourselves as a team to continue with the excellence for the rest of the product's stories. So, I'm very excited, because the is the most XP'ish I've ever experienced and it looks like it will continue on...