More than 20 years ago Fred Brooks published a seminal essay on the nature
of software, called "No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software
Engineering" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet). If you've
never read it I'd highly encourage it, as even though it's ancient by the
standards of our industry, it's still amazingly relevant and gets to the
heart of why creating great software is so hard.
I thought of this article again recently, as one thing that truly frustrates
me is that there are always people out there in software arguing that their
favorite technique is essentially a silver bullet, and all you need for
great results is to follow their favorite practice. Reminds me of the old
saying that if the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem looks
like a nail.
For some reason, the software process world has always seemed to attract
more than its share of these zealots. I hope I never become one of those
people.
I am a big fan of Scrum and aggressively advocate its use, but sadly there
are many core problems it simply doesn't address.
Similarly, I'm a huge fan of web analytics and split testing to optimize
products, yet there are critical insights about your users you'll never
learn if this is your only technique.
I also love to use the combination of high-fidelity prototypes and user
testing, yet I would never argue that this is all you need to do.
Same with personas, contextual inquiries, product principles, charter
customer programs, and dozens of other valuable techniques.
Instead I believe that a strong product leader needs to be armed with a
range of tools and techniques to be employed where appropriate.
I'm sorry if this sounds harder than just learning a single tool or
technique, but not only will you create better products, but you'll find
that you are better equipped to deal with whatever product challenges you're
faced with.
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