I don’t have kids, but I do know how young kids ask questions. They are innocent, and free of assumptions, and keep asking “why?” In the end, the poor adults either get tired of the questions, or realize that there are assumptions they’ve been making for all this time that might actually be worth questioning.
Human processes mold around software. We see this all the time. A CRM gives you these 5 canned reports, and you get used to making do with what’s there. A legacy client database requires a certain order of data entry, and your intake forms have been produced to copy that order. Your email software has particular limitations, and you find behavioral workarounds.
What’s also true in the realm of customized software, is that software is molded around people. You put in your RFP that a package spit out data in X,Y and Z ways because your ED is used to data in that form (maybe because a package they had at their previous organization had those canned reports.) You have a requirement that data be entered into the system in one particular way, probably because that’s the way you’ve always done it. Sometimes, you feel the need to replicate a process that the person 3 administrative assistants ago put in place that was molded around their particular limitations, just because that’s what you know.
When you are undergoing the process of creating or implementing a new system of any sort, whether it be a CMS for a website, a CRM, some internal system, it is a really good exercise to be like a 3 year-old, and keep asking “why?” Why do we need this feature? Why will this report be important? Why should the software work this way? Once you peel the layers down to the bottom, you’ll either have “we don’t know” or “because we believe it will help us meet our mission in this specific way.” Then you know what you should take, and what you can leave behind.
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Great post Michelle! :)