Reflections on Software Engineering

Late in the afternoon on December 25, during one of the loudest, howling winter storms I’ve ever experienced we lost power. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal except I was in a vacation house with 20 other people, basically my wife’s entire extended family.

After the power went out, the heat did not fire up. The tree went dark. So did the TV, DVD player, and Wii.

Using a pair of LED headlamps my wife and I received for Christmas the 20 of us took turns rolling and stuffing homemade ravioli dough for dinner. Christmas ravioli making is extremely serious business and I had finally been promoted to “unmonitored ravioli stuffer” this year. Luckily we had manual pasta rollers to flatten the dough. There’s always talk of “upgrading” from the hand cranked system but this year, tradition trumped technology.

Once ravioli are stuffed, they have to dry for a few hours before cooking. In the years past this was the time to play with new games or watch a new movie. Of course, without electricity most of our new toys were rendered useless.

Since the heat was off and the vacation house was gigantic, the fireplace in the living room was our only option for warmth. Lighting the room was the handful of candles we had, originally intended for dining ambiance, and the low glow from the fire.

To pass the time, we sang Christmas carols in the near dark. It was all sort of surreal, a setting I am certain we would not have created on our own had we not lost electricity, had we not been so completely pushed out of our comfort zone. Even more fantastic was that after over 20 years of putting it on my wish list, someone actually gave me a pair of night vision goggles for Christmas. Surprisingly, this “toy” is the real deal. I was able to wander around a completely pitch dark house with no problems. The night vision, along with the head lamps (which single handedly saved dinner), were by far the best gifts of the day. The electricity turned on around 1:00am that morning and by the next morning, everything went back to the way it was.

Sitting in the dark on Christmas night got me thinking. This was an experience that I never would have chosen, a situation I would never have intentionally embraced, but it turned out to be pretty fun. How many opportunities have I missed because my default attitude was to stay inside my comfort zone? While happy accidents are great, can’t I do more to create opportunities rather than relying on happenstance? Given the time of year it only seems appropriate to ask these sorts of questions.

I’m a technologist, a scientist, and an engineer at heart. I love playing with gadgets, tinkering with software, and working on interesting and challenging problems. Sitting in the dark with no power, my normal pursuits removed, it was easy to remember that people are important too. Sure, when building software everyone always talks about how people are important, but when building software we call people “users” essentially reducing their humanity. After all, there are only two industries where the customers are called “users” – software is one of them.  Is it really appropriate to use the same term to describe software clients and drug addicts?

My lesson from the night: the technology and gadgets and programming and processes and everything else are awesome, but they are meaningless if they fail to create a genuine relationship with people.  I do believe that relationships matter and that people are important. I’d like to do a better job of thinking about people first this year. In the rush of excitement surrounding every new technological achievement, it’s sometimes easy to forget that helping people is why I build software.  It’s too bad it took a harsh winter snow storm to remind me of this.

Building a great software product is only half the battle. The relationship the user builds with your software has the single greatest influence on how awesome that software is. Sorry. It’s not the language the software is written in. It’s not the algorithms. It’s not all the processes you used behind the scenes to create it. If the relationship sucks, your software sucks. Period.

To prove this I’m going to use a tangentially-related personal experience that has absolutely nothing to do with software. In this case, it’s ok, because realistically, this bit of reflection actually has nothing to do with software – remember it’s about relationships. Let’s talk about two concerts I’ve seen this summer.

Coldplay: “You’re Awesome!”

I’ve heard Coldplay’s radio hits but I was never really a huge fan of the band. Had it not been for a friend’s invitation I would never have gone to this concert and I would have missed out on one of the best live shows I’ve seen. Acceptable radio hits became handcrafted masterpieces, more amazing live than on FM. The most interesting part of the show, and the thing that left the greatest impression on me, was the band’s absolute humble devotion toward the fans in attendance. At one point the band walked out to mini-stages set up in the seated area under the pavilion and way out in the lawn, giving all fans an equal chance to be a part of the show, not just the diehards that purchased overpriced tickets.

Coldplay’s attitude created a completely positive vibe that made me want to enjoy myself.  After they had exhausted themselves for close to two hours, doing everything possible to create a positive experience for the audience, Coldplay thanked us, not for coming to see them, but for allowing them to play for us, “You’re awesome, thank you for letting us play for you tonight!”

Dave Matthews Band – “We’re Awesome!”

I didn’t realize that Dave Matthews Band live shows are really just one long meandering jam session.  Every one of the band members is an amazing musician, but 14+ minute songs start to wear after a while.  Dave Matthews rarely spoke (when he did it was incomprehensible) and most of the band wore sunglasses throughout the entire show. Overall, it was a very mediocre concert that was better suited to an afternoon picnic setting than an evening at a large outdoor amphitheatre.  From a technical perspective it was amazing but overall it failed to entertain me.

The most interesting thing about this concert was the crowd. In spite of the fact that the band seemed to be playing solely for their own amusement, the audience was full of absolute fanatics, complete with their own dress code – plaid shorts and tie dyed shirts (though rarely together) with sandals – and a shared emotional connection to every song the band played. Dave Matthews Band is here to play music – If you like it, whatever, if you don’t, whatever.  “We had a fun time tonight and I hope you did too!”

It’s all About the Relationship

It turns out that the relationship the bands built with the audience during the show was directly related to how much I enjoyed it. It should be pretty obvious how this extends to software.  The relationship your software builds with your users will determine how much they enjoy using it. Is your software helping users be amazing or does your software expect users to change their behaviors to use it? Are you building something for yourself that others might happen to like or are you targeting a specific audience?

Software that is technically the best will always fall short to similar software that builds a relationship. Kathy Seirra expressed a similar sentiment with her Dating Rules for Software. But there’s a small catch to Kathy’s rules as exhibited by the Dave Matthews Band. Apple tends to act this way too. Sometimes if you do your own thing and you actually are great, you can afford not to focus on the relationship. It’s extremely difficult but sometimes it works. Sacrificing the relationship creates a razor thin margin for error but when you get it right, you’ll breed fanatics that will love you (almost) unconditionally and critics who will absolutely hate you – there is no mediocrity.

Sacrifice the relationship and you could be the best, but only until someone almost as good comes along who thinks about others before themselves.  I think Microsoft has learned that lesson the hard way.  No matter what you do, relationships rule the day.