Why it helps to understand that IT is just a part of your solution and you should ask many questions

work

Sometimes I have the impression that IT is seen totally isolated from the target that has to be hit. For some people IT is a magic box, that solves your needs without talking about the actual plan.

Unfortunately, it often happens that people in projects think that other people automatically understand what they want . They assume, that everything is clear and that its not necessary to ask.

Well … Please! Ask!

Really, if you don’t understand everything for 100% , please: Ask!

But don’t ask what has to be done and why only, also ask about the surrounding conditions.

Surrounding conditions can be:

  • Who are the stakeholders and what are their interests?
  • Who do we need to accomplish the task properly?
  • Do we have some legal dependencies?
  • Which systems are involved and how are they integrated?
  • From where and to whom are this systems accessible?
  • and many, many more questions…

What you can see here actually is, that some of the questions have nothing to do directly with IT, but it can and will have big impact on the solution that you like to develop.

What I want to suggest is that you should ask questions, ask questions to understand how everything is related to each other. At least for the part of your work.

IT won’t fulfill your requirements if you do not exactly know and communicate what you need. Asking questions will help you and others to solve your tasks properly.

What are your experiences regarding asking questions within IT projects?