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After Sylvia had left, Jill said to Jim, "Well, that was some conversation."

Jim replied, "She's quite an interesting person. You should see her in front of a boardroom.

"Jill, would it be OK if we go back to something we talked about just before we arrived at Godot's?"

"Sure, what was that?" Jill replied.

"We were talking about the InfoTechWeek article and No Surprises Technology."

"Oh, yes, now I remember," said Jill. "Something about having good directions and landmarks."

"Yes. I've been trying to come up with a good metaphor for why No Surprises Technology matters so much for an IT project. At first I thought of using a maze as the metaphor."

"A maze?" asked Jill.

"Yes." Jim drew a simple maze as quickly as possible on a napkin. "Do you remember doing these kinds of mazes as a kid?"

"Sure, I did them just a few years ago with my son," Jill replied.

"Of course, the trick to solving a maze is to work backwards from the end to the beginning."

Jack drew a line from the end to the beginning.

Jill commented, "I can see how that illustrates No Surprises Technology. Every project we do is like working through a maze trying to reach the end. The Step-by-Step sessions, the Trial and Error sessions, and the Reality Checks all work because they focus on the end result. So why don't you stick with that?"

"It's not bad, but, for one thing, you can't travel back in time as you do when you cheat on a maze puzzle. Another problem with comparing a technology project with a maze is that a technology project has many different ways to reach the end. On a maze there is usually only one right path.

"I like the metaphor of finding your way to a destination in a car better. We all know what it feels like to try driving to someplace we haven't been to before."

Jill interrupted, "- and when you drive you often at least know the neighborhood of your destination. Just as with a technology project, you have at least some idea where you need to end up."

"And," Jim continued, "you know about the tall landmarks. The reason that the Liberty Building worked so well in getting us here is because it is above the street level. We know that landmark and we can see it from the beginning of our trip."

Jill nodded, "So what exactly are you saying a tall landmark would be on a technology project?"

Jim answered, "One tall landmark is the clear view of how the work is actually done before the project starts. The Step-by-Step phase provides that clear landmark for a project team. The Trial and Error sessions provide another tall landmark. They offer the view of how people actually work with the future technology design. Although the design evolves from one Trial and Error session to the next, the project team keeps getting a clearer view of how users will work best with the new technology."

Jill said, "I can see how this metaphor of driving to a new destination is working out pretty well. Just as there are many ways to get to Godot's from Worldwide headquarters, there are many ways to design and build technology. Of course, one way that you can try to get someplace new is to rely on the street directions that others tell you. But the problem with relying on street directions is that they can leave out important details, or that they could simply be wrong. Just like the specifications that users give IT departments."

"And rather than blaming whoever gives us the street directions," Jim said, "we also need to insist that people show us the important and prominent landmarks to lead our project the right way. Until No Surprises Technology, we didn't really have any clear and reliable landmarks for our projects."

"And frankly we ended up in a bad neighborhood more than a few times," Jill joked.

"You can say that again," Jim said.

Jim signed the check for the meal, and the two headed back in Jill's car.

"Know the way back?" Jim said.

"Gimme a break!" Jill shot back. "Jim, I've been meaning to ask you, has it been tough getting other managers on board with No Surprises Technology?"

"Sometimes, yes," Jim replied. "That's why I had Walter Bodapati come in to view the results of your Step-by-Step work."

Jill shook her head suddenly, and said with exasperation, "Why is it that so many people just don't get it? Working on this InfoTechWeek article with you really makes me wonder why is it so difficult for people to understand the need for No Surprises Technology!

"Sure, I had my own initial misgivings, but that's probably because as a career IT person I was so engrained in my old ideas of how to make a project work. But why would someone outside of IT not welcome an approach that focuses on business results as early and often as possible?"

"Because talk is what matters most in business," Jim said.

"Come again?" Jill asked.

Jim's tone became more subdued as he said, "If you are going to be in any organization, Jill, you have to accept the reality that good work alone is not what it takes to get ahead. Regardless of what is written anywhere about succeeding in business, live discussions between people matter more than anything else. Who says something matters most and what they say follows immediately next."

Jill was a bit taken aback by Jim suddenly talking so philosophically about work life. She asked, "Are you saying that the work you produce, the decisions you make, and how well you manage your people don't matter?"

Jim replied, "Of course they do. But you and I both have seen people that work very hard and produce excellent results, but what the HR folks would call their 'communication skills' are not up to par. When managers talk about someone's deficits in 'communication skills', they are usually talking about how well someone can relate to others during direct discussions. Someone tagged with a deficit in 'communication skills' is usually naive about knowing what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and, most importantly, to whom you can say it."

Jill was not accustomed to Jim not only being this candid, but also somewhat cynical. But she appreciated that he felt comfortable sharing this viewpoint with her. "Well, Jim, I suppose any one that's been out of school for awhile realizes that there's at least some truth in what you say. So, for the sake of this discussion, let's assume that talk is what matters most for people to succeed within an organization. What does that have to do with why No Surprises Technology is not more widely practiced today?"

Jim replied, "The traditional IT methodologies, despite their poor track record, make everyone in an organization feel that things are clicking just as they are supposed to.

"Top managers want new computer technology, and we talk to them. Then we document what they said, which makes them feel that we take what they said seriously. And that we are going to carefully follow through on what they said.

"With traditional IT, we then have interviews with users, especially expert users. We document that. What follows are basically weeks or months of questioning and refining what people say they want."

Jill added, "And there are always arguments about what people want."

Jim said, "Certainly. And those arguments again are settled by the main currency of business - talk.

"Because the traditional IT process relies on talk extensively and produces prodigious feedback on what is being said, even the most doomed IT projects make everyone feel that everything is being done as well as possible for a long time."

Jill drove her car into the Worldwide garage and parked in her space.

Jill asked, "Do you have something you have to go right away? I'd like to hear the rest of your thoughts."

When they arrived at Jim's office, Jill notices his whiteboard was filled with notes and ideas. She noticed that some of them had to do with actions and words.

"Need anything to drink?" Jim asked.

"No, thanks, I probably had more than enough coffee at Godot's," Jill responded. They both sat down at the conference table near the whiteboard.

Jim resumed his dissertation, "To back up a second, discussions and talk are effective enough in most business situations. That's because people are the ones that execute the follow-up on almost every business discussion. People interpret and carry out what is said as best they can. But they always take what was said with at least some grain of salt.

"People never do exactly what is agreed upon. They apply their intelligence to act reasonably. When people act on words, they always add, remove, or change something, especially if the reality they act upon is different than what is discussed. If the reality they face is too different, people will go back to talk with others and revise what had been decided. The flexibility and independence of good people are what always makes them so valuable to an organization."

"I think I see where you are going with this," Jill said.

Jim continued, "With technology projects, there is no flexibility and independence once the programs are coded. The computer doesn't care if what was said still makes sense, or if the people working with it can understand what the computer is doing. The computer will not exercise any common sense in carrying out actions. It is an ultimately knowledgeable idiot, knowing exactly everything and only everything you told it. And doing only exactly what you told it.

"And, that, of course, is where everything breaks done. Months after all the extensive and well-documented discussions are done, you have technology that people can't use.

"The problem is that actions cannot be expressed well enough by our words. What people say they do and what they actually do are always going to be different, as are what people think they will do and what they will actually do.

"But a great computer screen design -- a great user interface -- is action itself taking form.

"That's why if you are focused on words, not actions, to design the computer interface, you will always come up terribly short of what is possible."

Jill let what Jim's thoughts sink in for a few seconds. Then she noticed something and said, "You've got those points on your whiteboard, don't you?"

Scrawled in Jim's handwriting, among a flurry of other ideas on the board, were the following points:

• Talk is the currency of life in organizations.
• Who says what and what they say are most important.
• Traditional technology development relies on carefully documenting what is said.
• Therefore, most people feel that everything is going as well as possible even on a doomed technology project.
• Reliance on talk is good enough for non-technical decisions, since people use interpretation and common sense to carry out what was said.
• In contrast, the computer will not exercise any common sense in carrying out what was said.
• Words can never express actions well enough.
• The goal of technology is always action -- people doing something better.
• The technology design is action itself taking form.
• Technology design based on action is always superior to design based on words alone.

Jim circled these bullet points.

Jill asked, "Do you have a heading for that list of points?"

Jim replied, "I'm torn between two headings. One is 'Why Technology Projects Fail'."

"What's the other?"

Relaxing a bit, Jim said, "Why Everyone Eventually Will Use No Surprises Technology."

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