How to Translate Developer Grace Dunbar Equinox Software

How to Translate Developer Grace Dunbar Equinox Software, Inc. Guest appearances by: Mike Rylander Bill Erickson Lebbeous Fogle-Weekley

Lesson 1: Specificity Question: So… how’s that new feature coming? Answer: It’s nominally complete. Nominally complete, modified noun a. indicating near completion Also, Theoretically finished: code is mostly written but nothing has been tested. The code is between 50% and 80% done and should "just work” once I finish it.

Specificity and clarity � When ◦ ◦ will the code be completely finished? Does that include the UI? The permissions? The settings? The documentation/instructions for using it? � When will it ◦ Where? ◦ Access? ◦ Staff Client? be available for testing? � How would you ◦ What I did ◦ What I expected ◦ What happened like bugs reported?

Lesson 2: WYSIWYG Developers are WYSIWYG � What are you working on? ◦ Sorting for the Foo-Foo feature � What are you doing to it? ◦ Fixing the ranking structure � Why? ◦ Because our testers/users/clients asked me to � What problem are you trying to solve? ◦ Oh. Bunnies sort out of order.

Ask the right question � Garbage in, garbage out a. k. a. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer � Do your homework (come prepared) � Ask the question you want answered The right question is specific and thoughtful… See: Rubber Ducking http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debu gging Also: Thinking out loud

The Right Question? Good “The drop down menu under Admin-Foo only includes Chocolate Bunnies. Most consider Peeps as sub-sets of Foo and, as such, would expect to administer Peep settings under Admin-Foo where the Chocolate Bunnies are located. Could the Admin-Foo menu be altered to include the Peeps? ” Not So Good “Why aren’t the Peeps under Admin-Foo? ”

Lesson 3: How to make a developer’s head explode Search isn’t accurate enough. � How so? When I keyword search for The Help the top results isn’t the novel or movie “The Help”, it’s a bunch of other titles with “the” and “help” in the title. � Your search is actually accurate, it just may not be temporally precise. Whatever! Precision… accuracy – it’s the same thing… just fix it!

Precision VS. Accuracy

Words have meanings � Be specific � Be thoughtful � Be courteous � Be descriptive

True or False It’s the developers’ job to write code. FALSE Code is a means to an end. The developers’ job is to solve a problem.

Remember… Developers aren’t builders. You didn’t hand them a blueprint. They are architects. They are creators. They love making useful things. Librarians aren’t just “users”. They are knowledgeable professionals. This is essential to doing their job well. They are problem-solvers. They love helping their community of users.