Outside-in Software Development

Carl Kessler and John Sweitzer (two IBMers) have written a new book called Outside-in Software Development.

This book occupies an interesting spot in the UX-related book landscape. It's not really about design, exactly, nor is it prescribing a particular software process. It's written by an executive with experience on the management side of building software (Kessler) and an architect with experience on the technical side of building software (Sweitzer), and neither of them have ever been User Experience Professionals.

And the target audience isn't UXers. I think it would be most useful for people in charge of software projects, including marketing, product management, managers, architects, and developers. I think UXers will enjoy it as well, but mostly because you'll find yourself nodding and saying "Damn right!" throughout the book - which is nice when reading a book written by a non-UXers.

However, there are some ideas in the book that were new to me as well. One in particular that I liked is that the authors argue that when you build up your list of key stakeholders for a products (including end users and business sponsors), you should also include your internal stakeholders and their goals. This surfaces explicitly that sometimes internal stakeholders have goals that are in conflict with each other... and sometimes the end users. For example, developers are internal stakeholders and they usually have a clear goal of completing their code on time - which can lead to a conflict of interest. It's not a new thought that developers can have a conflict of interest, but it's a new thought (to me) that we should document that goal when defining a product's stakeholders. Get it out in the open. Talk about it. That's a really good idea.

Mainly I found the book to be practical. Which is the highest form of praise for a book like this... and rare. It has fairly easy to implement ideas on how to shift towards outside-in thinking, and doesn't expect people to make a wholesale change to their processes in one fell swoop. They also discuss common mistakes (often with personal examples) and how to avoid them - such as trusting that your customers know what their own requirements are. And best of all (from my perspective), the book applies to enterprise software, not just building little websites. It doesn't assume that everyone on a project team is co-located and can fit in a single conference room with a whiteboard.

Anyway, I recommend the book highly.

(Full disclosure - in case anyone hasn't read my profile, I work at IBM too. I don't know Carl or John, but I've had one or two meetings with them over the years. I wasn't involved at all in the book - I didn't know anything about it until after it was published.)

By the way, Carl also has a blog dedicated to Outside-in Thinking.