An old boss of mine used to have a small wooden plaque on his desk. It said “JDI” – “Just Do It”. Not in the Nike “you go, girl”, self-empowerment sense. More in the “just because I’ve finished talking doesn’t mean you get a turn now” sense. Anything short of “right away!” and he would silently nudge the plaque in your direction. Good times, good times. Marrying up that imperious client attitude up with Agile development would probably be a big mistake. But here goes: Agile – The Motion Picture”
Hotshot Marketer (played by Alec Baldwin): What up dawg? Ding dong ding dong, yo!
Harried Business Analyst (played by Ben Stiller): Dude, nobody talks like that anymore. And you’re from, like, Duluth, aren’t you? Anyway, what are we building today?
Hotshot Marketer: “So here’s the logo – it’s going to go here, and you’re gonna make it blink and jump out of the frame and turn into rocket fire and then Yoda from Star Wars. Or maybe smoke then Harry Potter. Or those Top Gear guys – anyway, we’re still hammering out the talent rights, I’ll get back to you on that. And be sure to code it in Flash, just to stick it to Steve Jobs on that iPad thing – you gotta get it done, too, ‘cause I already bought the media – and…
Harried Business Analyst: Well, that’s a risk, we sort of have to nail down who’s jumping out of the frame if we’re going to finish…
Helpful Developer (played by Paul Rudd): Hey, I have a suggestion – if we change just a few things, move this over here, let us handle the coding, we could gain the flexibility of…
Hotshot Marketer: “Yeah, thanks bro, I’m totally not hearing that. I want what I want. Whose page? My page. Who’s the customer? I’m the customer, right? Whoa – I’m late for the links. I got your requirements right here on this napkin – ignore the Hooters logo, of course. Just do it, babe.”
The entire basis of Agile is the User Story which shuold reflect how the users will use the product in various scenarios. These shuold be based on direct discussions with the customer about their requirements and how the product will help them achieve their goals.A technical writer can interpret the requirements into the appropriate stories to guide the development, even if they cannot specifically design the software (or hardware) required. I think it makes sense that a technical communicator be involved in the team that gathers the requirements (along with a development representative) and that there shuold be a collaborative effort to construct the user stories. This minimizes the risk Agile opens.