The long-standing acceptance in our market is that the client determines the requirements and we, as a company, execute tasks accordingly. However, at On Point, we believe that our role is to come up with the best solutions possible in line to what is required today, to what is innovative and most importantly future-proof, to eventually carry out the right job for our client.
It’s way simpler to execute tasks requested by the client, to provide simple reporting solutions and our job is done. The problem arises when the client asks for more reporting options. How can we ask him to pay more hours of work when it could have been easily avoided should the software solution have been designed with more flexibility and a more future-looking outlook? What will the client perceive if every requirement has to entail more hours of work?
Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” As software specialists, we have to question and carefully analyse so as to understand the full situation, the real requirements. We have to think outside the box and foresee variations our client might encounter. Changes that might not be required today but will be potentially necessary in a couple of months time. Not all clients are usually aware of more complex variations, this coming from our experience in several industries, as software solutions take time to be implemented.
How can we ask our client to pay more hours of work when it could have been easily avoided should the software solution have been designed with more flexibility and a more future-looking outlook?
It may be the number of films that I am binging on during quarantine or perhaps the books which I’m delving into due to the long hours at home, but I couldn’t help not comparing our job to police questioning. We do not interrogate, as thoroughly and forcibly as police do, but we need to ask and dig deep in order to come up with the best solutions and requirements.