Things that Seem Counter-intuitive
I read an article in the Boston Globe recently that claimed that runners’ injuries are caused by shoes. Not bad shoes - shoes in general. The author claimed shoes forced feet to move in unnatural ways. He went on to say running barefoot, or with minimalist coverings, was far healthier. Interesting idea.
The next counter-intuitive notion was that cancer screening is a waste of resources. This author claimed that screening detects tumors, but many of the tumors found this way are non-lethal. And you can't screen often enough to detect the fast growing, lethal tumors. My wife the nurse says this is rubbish.
The third idea is this. Just because Notes allows you to make simple changes to applications very quickly and easily, doesn’t mean you should. In fact, you shouldn't. Here's why. Users don't like constant change. They like to know that what they did yesterday will still be possible to do today. But they do like to know that you are responding to their feedback. Simply collect all the comments into one bigger release. You will be able to spend more time working on related items, changing that main form just once, and cleaning up all those things that you wanted to address at the same time. It is a side effect of the RAD environment Notes provides, but it can be detrimental to respond too quickly to change requests.
The next counter-intuitive notion was that cancer screening is a waste of resources. This author claimed that screening detects tumors, but many of the tumors found this way are non-lethal. And you can't screen often enough to detect the fast growing, lethal tumors. My wife the nurse says this is rubbish.
The third idea is this. Just because Notes allows you to make simple changes to applications very quickly and easily, doesn’t mean you should. In fact, you shouldn't. Here's why. Users don't like constant change. They like to know that what they did yesterday will still be possible to do today. But they do like to know that you are responding to their feedback. Simply collect all the comments into one bigger release. You will be able to spend more time working on related items, changing that main form just once, and cleaning up all those things that you wanted to address at the same time. It is a side effect of the RAD environment Notes provides, but it can be detrimental to respond too quickly to change requests.
Category Best Practices
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Comments
Actually this feature is one of my favorite things. Notes is the best environments for modifying a production system that I've used in my 30 year career.
It may also be counter-intuitive, but my users, very small companies who can't afford long release cycles, have been very satisfied with my fixing their production systems right under their fingers.
I have often created a new custom view or tweaked an existing one, while the customer was on the phone with me. "How's that?", I'd ask. They'd say, "Can you add the xxx data in another column? Oh, and sort it the other way." A minute later I'd say, "Okay, is that what you wanted?" "Yah." they reply. "Cool. Thanks. Send me the bill."
Very satisfying.
Peace,
Rob:-]
Posted by Rob At 06:04:24 PM On 04/30/2009 | - Website - |
Or, I am going to have to take that back to my shop and work on it for a couple of days. Then just a quick refresh design and there you have it. (Bob's your uncle for my UK readers). Wait, where's the changes I made - oh yeah, prohibit refresh.
Or the copy you have back in the shop doesn't have the first change you made, so the design refresh re-introduces the old behavior.
As a consultant, you have even more reason to batch your changes into one bigger project - unless you charge by the minute to turn on a column sort.
As the headline says, it seems counter-intuitive because we got used to doing things that way. I'm suggesting that we as Notes professionals may want to rethink the old ways of doing things.
Posted by John Kingsley At 03:10:23 PM On 05/01/2009 | - Website - |