This is hopefully part of a series of tongue in cheek posts where I attempt to correlate my love of software engineering with my love of..well Love. It'll be a bit Seth Godin like in that there is 10% truth and 90% preachy bulls**t.
In our current project, we have the problem of trying to get our stakeholders to come to the meetings and participate in the process of building the project they are paying us to make. They are happy to initially meet us and talk, but after they've given a rough idea of what they want, they are too busy to talk to the team.
This is sort of like when you talk to a girl and she is excited to be your friend and talk about what she likes in a boyfriend, but when you ask for more commitment, she cools off and wants to keep things at arms length. When you want to win her over, you don't spend your entire time sending her roses, begging under her window to take you in. You go off and live your life as awesomely as you can. You say now and then, "hey look how great things are going" and from time to time you can try again to convince her. After some time, she'll realize what a fool she is and she will dash into your arms. But remember to regularly talk to her, otherwise she'll fall for some other, less awesome fellow who happens to win her fancy.
Similarly, if your stakeholders aren't willing to come to the party and you've got SOME idea of what to do, why bother waiting around whinging that they won't read the product requirements document? Start building this cool product and make it something you can be proud of. Drop in with them now and then show them what you're making and at some point they'll realize either a) wow, this is really heading somewhere great and all it needs is a bit more guidance from me OR b) these numskulls are losing all MY money building the wrong thing, I've got to get involved or my bosses will kill me. And then they'll dash into your arms. But remember to demo and talk regularly to them, otherwise you might get canceled in the process for some other floozy project.
This is why I've started going to the gym. Do you have any idea how many stakeholders I'll have to carry in my arms for this project?
