Much as I generally dislike Jack Straw, my opinion of him improved somewhat as a result of his ability to change his mind. As far as I understand the 30-second news story, he did the right thing. He had an idea, it looked to him like a good idea, he asked a few people what they thought, they didn’t like it and said it was a bad idea, he wasn’t sure, so he decided not to go ahead with what he now wasn’t sure was a good idea. If only more people felt able to do that.

From my perspective, he got two things right: he canvassed opinion, and he then used that to revise his decision. It is not a sign of weakness to ask other people to think about your problem with you. It is not a sign of weakness to then use their advice. It is not a sign of weakness to change your mind. It is a sign of weakness to blindly go ahead with what you now see is a bad idea just because you are not brave enough to hold up your hand and say you’ve made a mistake.

The same applies to development projects: if you see you’ve made a design mistake, you can always paper over it and leave it as a hidden treasure for the maintenance programmer who inherits the system. Or, you can bite the bullet, admit you’ve got it wrong, and then re-do the work until it is right. Unfortunately, it is hard to communicate to non-techs exactly why you need to re-do the work and why you are adding extra time to the project. It’s easier to pretend you haven’t noticed the problem and just steam ahead and meet deadlines.

The trouble is, when you get it wrong, users suffer. Good software is invisible to the user – they stop noticing what they are using to do their job, and just do their job. Bad software makes every task seem difficult and awkward. So I would argue (and have done) that it is better to nip the problems in the bud in the development stage, rather than leave it for someone to apply sticking plasters later on.

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Most companies have some form of IT infrastructure: you almost have to. Most of the companies that have this IT infrastructure, do not appreciate what it can, and does, enable them to do. Which is excellent, because good IT should be unobtrusive; it should be a natural part of your everyday life and enable you to do your job more effectively.

Time progresses and technologies improve, but has your business reevaluated its IT strategy lately? What is there available now that could help you survive this downturn? Is there any way you could invest some money now and enable your operation to become leaner, smarter, faster. Evolution doesn’t just apply to nature, you know.

Almost every day, I come across an instance of a user-grown ’system’ that has evolved to try and cope with a demand. It’s not the best solution, but it does the job. Once I’ve worked out what that job is, I can then rationalise the process and smooth off those rough corners that have been a niggle for the users. I am always amazed with the ingenuity of people when faced with a problem. Sometimes the solutions they come up with just need a little automation to make them more efficient.

The other day, I met with a group of users who have a particularly cumbersome application designed for them. The original user of the system signed off the development work solely on the basis that it was ‘better than what we had before’. So, over the years, as needs have changed, it has become harder and harder to use this application, as it didn’t really do what was required in the first place.

Before the meeting, I sat and thought about the process that the application is designed to assist with. I put myself into the position of a user of the system, and all the things I would want and need to be able to do. The users did the same and came to me with a mind-map of their process and a wishlist of features. I talked them through my ideas and then asked them what they thought. I had covered most of their wish list, and more. So development work will start on that, and together we will turn a department struggling to cope, into an efficient, stress-free team, who can spend more time on customer service, and less time wondering which button to press.

These are exciting times indeed.

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