What's so great about bad news? Consider that bad news is simply the act of learning about bad circumstances. You can't change the fact that something bad has happened, but you do need to know about it if you're going to respond to it. Bad information, in this context, is simply thinking that things are peachy when they are not. This may feel blissful, but not for long. Ignorance is a painful navigator.
If you're really good, you look for bad news early and often. The sooner you learn about a problem, the sooner you can do something about it. Most problems don't go away over time -- they get worse. Avoiding this situation is definitely a best practice.
In software, there are several strategies one can use to increase the bad news:bad information ratio. Regardless of one's role, it's all about increasing communication. Developers, increase the flow of communication from the codebase. Automated unit tests, a continuous build system and metrics gathering will go a very long way towards giving the team a clear view of where things stand. Business teams, demand to see working software delivered and demoed on a regular basis.
In general, increasing communication between the stakeholders (end user, customer, etc) and the technology team (developers, UI designers, testers, etc) is critical. Have a stakeholder work alongside you who can answer specific questions about how the final deliverable should function. Shrink the feedback loop in all of these efforts and work iteratively and incrementally.
This may all sound like common sense, but people opt for bad information over bad news all the time. The metrics one chooses to pay attention to, the language (especially body language) one uses, and most importantly the questions one asks all determine your level of informedness. Remember, no news is not good news -- it's the worst kind of bad information.
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1 comments:
I had a one hour conversation today with someone who didn't want the bad news/good info. Anyway, welcome! :-)
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