The BMW Analogy : Why must there be a UAT?

re: The BMW Analogy : Why must there be a UAT?

rape stories — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 02:07:31 GMT

Your article is prety nice. It's a pity that i didn't see it more later.

re: The BMW Analogy : Why must there be a UAT?

Peter Ritchie — Tue, 23 May 2006 19:01:41 GMT

A more apt analogy would be requesting Boyd Coddington build you a car, based upon your specs. With an "off-the-shelf" car you just assume that the specs listed in the shiny pamphlets are correct and that the hundreds of other customers of the same car provide a level of acceptence where you don't have to check it matches the specs upon delivery. With a custom car you're going to scrutinize it a bit more to make sure you got what you asked for.

re: The BMW Analogy : Why must there be a UAT?

Simon — Tue, 23 May 2006 10:13:41 GMT

I agree with Arnon's comments; UAT is more about "does this do what I asked for?" rather than "does this work?". It's basically a step taken because we know it is difficult to accurately and flawlessly understand a user's requirements, rather than to write high quality systems.

Still, an interesting analogy! Driving a GM car, I think UAT might not be such a bad idea for them :-)

re: The BMW Analogy : Why must there be a UAT?

Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz — Mon, 22 May 2006 08:09:54 GMT

Yes we can - these are called shrinked wrapped programs (Office, Acrobat, Oblivion whatever)
When we are taking about solutions the BMW analogy doesn't hold - it is more like buying a suit from a high-profile tailor - you need measurments up-front and then you come for a fitting before the final suit is handed to you

Arnon