[Sigia-l] Usability Profession Increasingly Under Scrutiny?

[Listera]

"Todd R. Warfel" wrote:

> One of the drawbacks of "selling usability."

I usually get private email when I make derisive remarks about Jacob (99%
Bad) Nielsen and other hucksters, asking me why I'm so bothered. I'm
bothered because their simplistic standards/rules poison the well of
thinking. If it's as easy as picking a paperback from the shelf why bother
with the ardor of thinking through problems in specificity?

> I read an article the other day stating that only 20% of IT projects come in
> on-time, or on-budget. And over 60% of IT projects fail. That's pretty sad. We
> should be able to deliver some measurable value that improves those numbers.

I'm all for accountability. But what's hilarious is that those very IT
drones that you mention above (with the failed, over-budget, late and under
performing projects) are often precisely the ones who stand in judgment of
us. Those are the ones that gave us the IT standards/rules. Just how many IT
managers, for example, have been fired for having established the
OS/security standards that cost their companies millions in lost
productivity and work disruptions over the years? How many MBAs and
marketing managers have been fired over dragging their companies through he
ignominy of the dotcom debacle?

----
Ziya

Architecture is politics.