TooCostlyCommunication

Communication of Information uses means more expensive than necessary

Description

Communication of Information costs more than necessary. This is because Communication of Information uses means more expensive than necessary. See also CostOfCommunication and TooMuchCommunication.

Discussion

In extreme cases, information used in software development can pass from Customer to Business Analyst, Requirements Analyst, OO Analyst, Systems Architect, OO Designer and Coder. Six or more handovers of information in one development chain may be unusual, but four or five are common. Remember also that there will be branches in the chain, with other handovers of information progressing in parallel. Where these handovers of information are expensive, as is often the case, it is worthwhile considering reduction in the cost of communication.

Prevention, Amelioration, Cure

Traditional

Ensure the information being transferred between roles is provided by, and received by, people with expertise; use the DomainExpertiseInRoles pattern. This reduces the amount of unnecessary explanation that accompanies the essential information being communicated.

Modern

A precursor to agile approaches is HolisticDiversity where work is assigned to a small team that has all the required skill and can communicate face to face internally, without any need for written documentation. See also the CostOfCommunication modern approaches.