This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Keith Ray. Original Post: Are Your Lights On? Feed Title: MemoRanda Feed URL: http://homepage.mac.com/1/homepage404ErrorPage.html Feed Description: Keith Ray's notes to be remembered on agile software development, project management, oo programming, and other topics. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Keith Ray Latest Posts From MemoRanda

I've been re-reading the book Are Your Lights On? How to figure out what the problem REALLY is by Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg. This is the book that should have become popular instead of "Who Moved My Cheese?". It doesn't talk down to the reader, and it's fairly light-hearted. (Of course, it's not the same subject as the Cheese book, but that's besides the point.) [Problem: a bad book like Cheese was popular, but a good book like this isn't (in comparison). We are the Solution: buy it, and blog about it. Tell all your friends. Get your CEO or CIO or the HR department to buy it in bulk.]

Sometimes the problem not considered when coming up with solutions is "whose problem is it?". This book considers that question several times in various real-world situations... such as landlords versus tenants, university president versus professors versus students, competing businesses and government regulators, bureaucrats and travelers.

In the area of agile programming practices, and their acceptance or lack of acceptance within an organization, consider who "owns" a problem before trying to solve it. If you are considering automated acceptance tests, what problems are they solving? (And, what problems are they creating?) Are people who feel the pain the most solving their own problem?

You can also consider this book as an informal prequel to the more serious book Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design by Gause and Weinberg. Buy both.