A good answer or a fast answer

There is an interesting discussion going on between Piergiorgio Grossi (PierG) and Prashant Gandhi.

First PierG opens a discussion by asking which one should you go for?

"The dilemma of every service provider (of any kind) is often giving a good solution or a fast solution."

Several good comments were written as response to this discussion.

 

PierG then responds by stating the obvious, "a reduced scope answer can probabily be correct and satisfing"

Prashant Gandhi comments with a nice example "Mind you, a dirty solution is not a wrong one – it is simply not the ideal one.It just means we take on technical debt or have a manual workaround. ".

 

PierG responds back saying "And as a general rule I prefer to think that making a technical debt is wrong! And … having someone in the team who’s able to decide when it’s time to make that mistake is a GREAT value."

 

Prashant Gandhi replies back again by writing "One has to judge every decision point with the business value yardstick to ensure that correct decisions are being made with available information at that point of time."

 

I was reminded of the google tech talk Video on Scrum by Ken Schwaber.

In the techtalk Schwaber said about a small study conducted.

In the study a set of people were given a task with an unrealistic deadline.

Roughly more than 80% (I really dont remember the number on top of my head) assumed that compromise on quality is ok and did the task. Only 20% of elite cam back and saaid that this is not to achieve the given scope in given time without compromising quality.

 

To me, If you leave it as an assumption (Quick and Dirty Solution will be the one the customer wants) then it is a problem. As long as you state the customer explicitly and give him the options its fair enough.

 

• Cut the scope, meet the deadline with a good solution
• Do not cut the scope, Get a quick and dirty workaround going till we get a good solution.

It is a business decision end of the day, A good solution is useless if doesn’t deliver the desired features or if it delivers all the features but does not have the required market timing. Inform the customer thoroughly of the repercussions of each option and let him make the informed decision.

 

Also got a link from Prashant’s blog on v2.0. I can correlate what ever Thomas Looy says to how most of the work in my current organization takes place.

 

Here is the link