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At 23:21 16-12-2001, Alan Stewart wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite><font face="arial" size=2>Hi All </font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2>This request stems from an approach to me from
a person commissioned to promote better communication among <br>
IT people in a large corporation and their customers. <br>
<br>
Anyone have experience in working with "geeks/nerds" ie the
technical people who create<br>
software and the hardware that runs it - on issues that cannot be
addressed through engineering <br>
brainpower? And stories of where this happened?
</font></blockquote><br>
<br>
<br>
Hello Alan:<br>
<br>
Like Paul, I would suggest that the expressions "geeks" and
"nerds" should <br>
never been used if you want to reach your objective ;-)<br>
<br>
I also assume that you are speaking of "internal customers" or
"users". (If <br>
you are speaking of external customers things are a little
different)<br>
<br>
I have been trying to address this problem (not with OST) for more that
20 <br>
years and the thing that doesn't work is through training - especially if
the <br>
training addresses the two communities in different actions. Also trying
to <br>
teach IT terminology or products to users is not normally very
useful.<br>
<br>
What I have find more useful is to address the question in real<br>
projects where both communities have to participate. This can be "IS
<br>
development" projects where the project is considered as a <br>
"socio-technical" projects where users and IT people have to
collaborate,<br>
or IS planning projects where managers and IT people will be
involved.<br>
<br>
I have not yet used OS for those types of projects joining users and IT
people<br>
but that will be my next experience and I am convinced that it will
work. <br>
<br>
The best solution depends on the concrete situation and problem and it is
not <br>
easy to address in general terms. Please feel free to ask any further
questions.<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
<br>
Artur<br>
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