Customer Participation: A Chicken or Pig Decision

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Customer Participation: A Chicken or Pig Decision

Doug DeCarlo, Principal, The Doug DeCarlo Group

October 15, 2007






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You can hardly have a conversation about agile project management or agile development without introducing the term “collaboration.” The word permeates all flavors of agile project management. Besides being ubiquitous, collaboration is considered to be a pre-requisite for agile practice: no “collaboration,” no agile.
 
Yet in practice, the “C” word has become watered down to mean just about any level of customer participation, from simply being on tap to answer questions from time to time, to mutual accountability as a member of the core project team. We know from the timeworn metaphor about the infamous ham and eggs breakfast that there are levels of participation. As the metaphor goes, when preparing a ham and eggs breakfast, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.
 
All Participation is Not Collaboration
There are levels of participation.



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