When you need to refine requirements from your customer or customer representative, what techniques have worked best for you? By best, I mean what techniques have ultimately resulted in delivering the right product and keeping the relationship positive. ---Background--- Our customer representative group elicits requirements from our sys...
Is mobilizing the implementation team to the client site to do the full cycle of implementation recommended? In other words, what are the pros and cons of working on client site other than in our own offices? If it is recommended, what are the proper environment requirements I may ask the client to provide for my team? ...
I know I'm gonna get down votes, but I have to make sure if this is logical or not. I have three tables A, B, C. B is a table used to make a many-many relationship between A and C. But the thing is that A and C are also related directly in a 1-many relationship A customer added the following requirement: Obtain the information from th...
Often, customers will request specific functionality that doesn't really fit into the existing system and probably will only get used by the specific customer. For example, there is a web application that functions as a portal for many different organizations. Say there are 15 organizations that all use the same underlying code, but ha...
I'm one of the main developers on a complex web application. As we start to gain more users, we need a better method of managing customer support. Currently, we just have a support email box that someone goes through and answers questions, or forwards them off to other team members who can help. But it's getting too big to manage. Ideal...
Consider having an unstable, incomplete, and not completely tested system. Then consider needing to demo it to the customer. The system being unstable, incomplete and not completely tested because an external supplier was not delivering what they promised and when they did deliver it is really bad code. After pushing back, and pushing b...
I have seen a few questions about how to interview potential employees and employers, but this is something fairly important that I've come across in the past and I'm sure a lot of other users here will have too: If you are running a small development company, consultancy or working freelance, what are the warning signs you look for in ...
Which web application would you recommend for user feedback? Get Satisfaction (http://getsatisfaction.com) User Voice (http://uservoice.com) featurelist (http://featurelist.org) or other recomendation? ...
how do you prepare a good software project presentation? How much balancing between the scripted run over features and a naturalistic use of the software. Especially to avoid something like a blue-screen of death on live TV. Thanks ...
I'm at the point with a project that most of it needs a rewrite, specifically one portion needs it very badly for a number of reasons: it's no longer being used for it's original purpose the code has been hacked so badly it's very hard to work with the changes they want will hack it to pieces the original design wasn't the greatest as ...
To me, good behavior from a client includes things like: Paying their invoices on time (probably the no. 1 thing that makes me happy). Taking the advice you give them on technical matters (e.g. you are better off with a online product catalog rather than an online shop). Not arguing with you when you flag a 'bad technology idea' (e.g....
You and I want to be the expert on computer programming or website design, but sometimes a customer would rather try their hand at your specialty than concentrate on real estate sales, marketing, or being a former member of the Israeli army. Then we have a choice: either figure out how to tell the prickly customer their logo would NOT be...
My boss tasked me with finding a sort of system for a customer to be able to log into a website and view their website as a work in progress (so employees would obviously have to be able to upload their work). All communication would be handled through this website. It sounds like a forum, but customers would not be able to see each oth...
For instance, customers that we're creating web sites for, request things like: all links should open in a new window put custom 'Back' button on every page while there is a working browser's equivalent make some part of the text blinking etc. Of course I tell them it's wrong, but is there some nice list of bad things to have from ...
We have a customer who just is person who doesn't want to pay enough and all our work on creating the documents for the price will be worthless since he will never be able to pay. How should I tell him that we don't want to do the job. Also we are trying to get out of projects and more into products. ...
Am i obligated to give the source code and support of the software I have created for a client especially if the client wanted to add some functionalities? For how long? ...
I am currently working on a simple system to replace an Excel spreadsheet. It's just a log for activities on a boat. The people working on the boat are of course happy with the Excel spreadsheet and don't see a reason for change. However, those on land have problems when they need to accumulate data. Basically they have 1 report each day...
Running a business / being self-employed we all have to deal occassionally with clients who become unresponsive. E.g. you send them a UI mockup asking for feedback and all you get back is silence. You ask about some details about the feature in their application that you're working on and you don't hear from them for a month. I try to n...
Sometimes you get a real productivity boost from using 3rd party components and/or libraries, where instead of reinventing the wheel you can just get it done quickly and more cost-efficiently. But what about when you're working on a project for your customer (as in freelancing or when running a custom development software shop)? I mean ...
What do you do when your (external) client's users don't have the time/will to actively participate in iterative development? How do you "force" them to get implicated? Remember that often they must do this while still completing all their regular duties and that the IT department, who sponsors the software project, doesn't have the pow...