Communication has never been the solution, understanding is what we need.

Every organization have communication plans. Every team communicate all the time, both internally and externally with those they collaborate. We talk, email, chat and have video calls all day in an endless stream of communication.

Yet we continuously fail in our work.

Even though we praise Agile as the savior to fix the problems, or put project management tools to align and manage things... we still fail.

Projects never get done on time or budget. People still sit frustrated and confused, trying to figure out what to do next, or even how to do the work. We have managers transforming to micromanaging monsters and developers thinking they can carry an entire team of competences on their own.

Yet, we still fail.

We write emails to the point where professional writers look at us with envy. We send entire novels each day on Slack and Teams, and we spend endless house in video calls. We scribble on whiteboards or make fancy graphs in Miro and PowerPoint and we spam everyone on SharePoint and Confluence.

Still we fail.

How is it that even though we communicate so much and still collaboration do not work? Why are we still confused and frustrated, even when we shrink the circles of who we collaborate with to an almost ridiculously small glass bubble of self-isolation?

Because Communication has never been the problem!

Just like you can take the best communicators in the world and put them in the same room for the best possible direct communication, if they speak different languages it will not matter. They will still not be able to understand each other.

This is the problem I see all the time in today's workplace and I feel it getting increasingly problematic as the words we used continuously become diluted and vague.

"You know what I meant"

One of the most common phrases I hear all the time is "you know what I meant". This happens when someone say something using words that mean something completely different, but when it becomes clear that it was the wrong word used, they just brush it off as if the meaning of words is not important and others should know what they meant by intent or telepathy somehow.

Words Matter.

The sole purpose of words to form a language is not so we can fart through our mouths by regurgitating nonsense. It is not to make fancy noises or express melodies, that is what music is for. Words in languages is not for communication, it is for understanding.

When we dilute the use of words and make words confusing, then understanding is reduced. When understanding is reduced then misunderstandings happen and when misunderstandings happen we make mistakes. Mistakes lead to frustration and very often financial or even legal implications at work.

All languages are broken.

No matter what language you choose it is filled with examples that make absolutely no sense logically. These come from social changes where the less intelligent and the lazy people break our language out of ignorance or plain laziness. In some cases they are even done out of pure malice, but I believe this to be a rare occasion.

These examples will then become the norm and for all foreseeable future until it is revoked, this will reduce the understanding we get from our language.

You succeed through understanding.

In many organizations the easy fix is to stop using buzzwords, which are made up words by people that want to sound more important than they are. Use descriptive language rather than made up ones that you find in a process, framework or methodology. Someone with a role that includes Owner for example have the ownership of something and someone that have the word Manager in their role manages something or someone.

Requirement Management is key

Without a shadow of doubt the area where failure happens for almost all companies is that they do not have Requirement Management. This is by far the most crucial area in any organization, no matter the size as this is where strategy is being translated to operational work. If you fail to understand this key breakpoint in your organizational workflow, then you will fail.

Sure, you can work harder and spend more time trying to understand in an ad-hoc setting, but obviously that is wasteful and prone to misunderstandings. I think we have all seem the image where a caveman show a round wheel to the others that push their carts forward on square wheels where they claim that they can't look at the round wheel because they are too busy because they have square wheels.

This is what working without Requirement Management is like.

You know I am right...

I think all of you know that understanding is the key to success because you have seen what happens when understanding fails. You may not agree that requirement management is a key ingredient in that effort, but there are countless examples of projects or assignments that have gone to hell because the requirements and expectations were unclear.

I think you all have seen the Project Management image with different expectations and how a project is perceived and delivered. I think that illustrates this problem quite well.

Use descriptive language and don't be lazy

The way to get around the constant failing is to stop using the wrong words and to define requirements. Do not let processes, methodologies or frameworks define words for you when they make no sense. Don't let the people in your organization make up words and definitions that make any sense either.

Create a glossary and make sure you use that for everything in your organization, including role names, process descriptions and so on. People will still do whatever they like, but at least this way you can point out when what they say is stupid or lazy and avoid fostering generational confusion as we have for the past 50 years or so.

Requirement Management can be many things

Many of you that think of requirement management probably think of nightmarish mega projects that are planned for years and can't be changed. That is not what Requirement Management means though, and it does not matter if you use an Agile framework or a project management methodology. Requirement management still works in all those settings.

It is pointless as we don't know anything!

Some might argues that defining requirements is pointless because you never know what you are doing If you don't know what you are doing, then you are either working very dysfunctionally in some form of chaotic Ad-hoc setting where you make shit up and throw it on the wall to see what sticks, or you are working with R&D and ideation. In this case you are not working with existing need, you are exploring and experimenting to find new value.

Congratulation, you are working with UX and CRO!

Requirement Management takes too much time

A common argument from teams and organizations that don't do requirement management or don't know how requirement Management works. Similar arguments are made for pair programming or mob programming for example and while the logic suggests that things should take more time, it actually don't.

If you do it right...

If you are struggling to make deadlines or get work done properly, and you think you could use someone to talk to about it, feel free to contact me. I'll happily hop on a chat or meetup for a coffee or lunch to discuss this with you.