why "wooden jeep"

The phrase "wooden jeep" comes from an analogy I like to use when dealing with, what I like to call "non-intelligent", suppliers that are giving the users I am working with just what they have asked for rather than what they need. In my analogy a new user, one that has never seen a jeep before, (this a new system they have not had before), has asked the supplier for a wooden jeep (why they asked for this in the first place is a whole other analogy for another posting later on), and the supplier has said “OK, I can do that”. Then they deliver wooden jeep to ther users, only to have it break or not perform as soon as the user trys or starts to use it. Now having this happen makes the user feel disgruntled, so he goes to the supplier and says “that jeep you made me doesn’t work, the first rock it came to it broke?”. To which the supplier replies, “but those were your requirements, I just gave you want you asked for.”

But did they?

The user had never seen a jeep before, didn’t know what it should do or not do nor how it should be made; and therein lies the rub, so to speak. “how it should be made”. The users requirements were actually that they "wanted a jeep", not that they wanted a wooden one. The “non-intelligent” supplier had taken a requirement mixed up with a design; and designing is the supplier’s job not the user's. The supplier should have separated the requirements and left behind the rest that’s not (kind of like the candyman with tomorrow & sorrow - I do tend to relate a lot of things back to song lyrics); as well as going back to the user and telling him that design is the supplier’s job, not the user’s. After all that isn’t that why the user had hired/engaged the supplier in the first place.

The supplier, who after all knows jeeps, should have told the user, a wooden jeep may sound nice and pretty and ergonomic, but it isn’t practical; what you need is a strong jeep made from steel with rubber tires, and leather seats and a Bose stereo; pointing out that, those last bits might be extra cost options and that the steal one might actually cost a bit more than the wooden one, but that it would be worth it in the end. Then when the user got his metal jeep and took it for a spin, he would be happy, and very glad that he had an intelligent supplier. And would probably buy all sorts of other options to go with his new jeep, maybe even taking off road driving lessons from the supplier. Instead of burning his wooden jeep and never going back to the suppler again.

And isn’t that what everyone really wants, happy and content users and satisfied and proud suppliers?

Be intelligent…
Users: listen to your “intelligent” supplier, ask for requirements, not design, separate the two, don't let your emotion dictate your system.
Suppliers: be intelligent! only get requirements from your users and then do your own intelligent design, it will pay off in the long run. What you have to do is "add a little love and make the world taste good" for your users; and then just as Sammy Davis jr did, they will keep coming back to their candyman for more.