CustomerwithTeam

One of the agile practices is that the customer sits with the team, iterating on the requirements with the team, developing acceptance tests, and in general, helping th team understand what the customer wants.

Most of the customers or customer-surrogates I run into are not just reluctant, they are outright hostile to the idea of sitting with the team. They have their work to do, not the project team's "work" to do.

I can see their point. They do have their work to perform. I bet it feels as if they are doing some of the project team's work too, especially since many people are used to handiing off requirements, being available for questions, but assuming that once they hand off requirements, they are free to go back to their jobs.

How have you seen customers with the team work? -- JohannaRothman 2003.10.10

Works for me all the time. I hire subject matter experts that are as strong or stronger than the end-users. We act as a QA/test service and provide whatever services the customer wants -- including helping with their regular job duties, helping them with production problems, helpingthem write requirements, etc. The drawback -- I lose my staff everytime to the customer groups as they advance in their careers. But this is a price I'm willing to pay.

DaveRabinek 2003.10.14

In my case, the Customer role was played by Product Planners with human interface design skills. Playing the Customer role was their job.

Having Customer "on-site" does not necessarily mean that the Customer is in the same room as the programmers. It's best if the Customer is within ear-shot, maybe in a room next to the programmer's war-room, but having easy access by email and phone works OK as long as responses are quick.

KeithRay 2003.10.14

Updated: Tuesday, October 14, 2003