Part of Your World… if it makes sense to be so.

I took my kids to see the new Little Mermaid movie yesterday. What did I think of it? I liked it! Halle Bailey was fantastic and really likeable as Ariel and WHAT A VOICE! Not too sure on Mr Bardem however…

But what has that got to do with software? More than you’d think actually.

People often complain about remakes and how they’re not warranted, or that the producers have changed too much or not enough. The same applies to processes and software. People are attached to their way of working, so don’t like change. But sometimes, whilst uncomfortable (or off-key!) change needs to happen to allow us to improve what we do and how we do it. Whilst we should never change things for the sake of having new toys (mixing metaphors here TC), we should not shy away from change it can provide a tangible benefit. These benefits may not be immediately obvious such as “if we do X we’ll make £Y” but it could help with reduction in data or work duplication, better information security or multi-user access to data.

But all that being said, we shouldn’t just remake something for the sake of it. If you, or your business analyst, cannot quantify money, time or usability improvement, consider leaving processes as they are. I hate paper and Excel processes as much as the next Consultant but do not let a software company pressure you into implementing a system that is costly or will not provide benefit to you business.

I like to end these things with a funny line about the pop-culture reference but I’m going to struggle to offer something that’s not under the sea….

Tom Crawley

Director