Customers Should Be Part Of The Team

Source: Dilbert 21-Sep-2009

Dilbert cartoons are great because they poke humour in everyday working situations, and they wouldn’t be funny if they weren’t true.  Too many times have I seen project teams in the situation above, including ones I have worked on.

Customers should be made part of the team.  A goal in Agile is to have the customer collaborate with the team and a key role is the Product Owner.  Together the team and customer work out what is needed in the user story (requirement), what is required to start the user story and what are the acceptance criteria to pass.

Communication between the customer and team occurs throughout the project and feedback is provided by the customer to the team often.  By having the customer part of the team it helps the team maintain a state of productivity by remaining available to answer questions and further clarify acceptance criteria.  Because the team and the customer work together to discuss the user story, there are no misunderstandings and situations in the above cartoon should rarely occur.