[Sigia-l] Rumsfeld speaks out for UCD!?

[Lord, Ralph]

Interesting sentence quoted in the WSJ from a report SecDef authored back in
1999 about WMD and ICBM's. (see how much alphabet soup I can make!)

Here's my slightly edited version which I think captures the flavor of what
we like to promote:

"Unless and until senior users take time to engage (designers), question
their assumptions and methods, seek from them what they know, what they
don't know and ask them their opinions -- and do so without (submitting to)
the (designers) when their opinions differ from those of the user -- ...
users cannot have a substantial impact in improving the ... product they
receive."

It's sort of a user "call-to-arms" as it were.  One could of course flip
places between user/designer to put the onus on the designers. (substitute
"dismissing" for "submitting to").

One finds this idea that user/producer interaction is necessary to create
the best product in the most unlikely of places.

Here's the original version, which was pointing out that policymakers can't
be just unquestioning users of intelligence reports:

"Unless and until senior users take time to engage analysts, question their
assumptions and methods, seek from them what they know, what they don't know
and ask them their opinions -- and do so without penalizing the analysts
when their opinions differ from those of the user -- senior users cannot
have a substantial impact in improving the intelligence product they
receive."

Ralph Lord
System Analyst
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
770.234.6562