[Sigia-l] We could just use whiteboards instead.

[Adrian Howard]

On Monday, August 18, 2003, at 04:50  pm, Listera wrote:

> "Adrian Howard" wrote:
>
>> Instead we posted (yes - snail mail!) a bunch of screen shots to her.
>> She printed them out, scribbled on them, and then faxed them back 
>> again.
>
> So you are giving this as an example of (to use that nauseating term) 
> 'best
> practices'?

Nope. I'm not giving it as an example of best practice. There is no 
such thing as best practice. Only best practice in context.

I'm giving it as an example of a low-tech solution to a problem that 
worked very well.

> This is the future?

When I get to the future I'll let you know ;-)

I and my client didn't live in the future. We still don't. If only... 
We did, however, live in a world that had a good postal service and 
faxes. So we used a parcel and a bunch of faxes to communicate. The 
best tools available to us.

If I was dealing with a client in, for example, a PDF workflow 
environment I would have used PDFs. However training the client up and 
installing such as system when a parcel and a bunch of faxes did 
everything I needed would have been a waste of money, my time and their 
time. The project was the important thing.

What would you have done?

When I can walk into a clients building and know that everybody 
involved in the project will have access to universal wireless 
connectivity, a wall sized display supporting collaborative working 
practices, versioning, seamless migration from draft to prototype to 
final product, with a GUI than any client can use I'll happily throw 
all my analog tools in the bin.

Until then I'll carry on using dry-wipe markers, post-it notes and 
index cards in addition to digital modelling tools. They are currently 
the most effective tools for a large chunk of the work that I do.

I'll always be playing with VNC, Jabber, iChat, OmniGraffle, Denim and 
whatever other new tool I hear about. However, I won't replace an 
existing tool (digital or analog) with another until the new tool is 
actually more effective than the old. Why would I?

> I'm sure people thought spittoons were
> essential amenities at one time, too. :-)

They are still very popular in countries where spitting is socially 
accepted. Removing spittoons prematurely may have messy side effects ;-)

Adrian