rgw@icdattcwsm:~/Blog$ cat 2024-11-06-Tailor-Made.md

Great software is ALWAYS tailor-made.

Yet, a lack of education on what "tailor-made" means veers us away from this ideal.

Firstly, the customer/client DOES NOT (and SHOULD NOT) define what it is. The tailor is the maker, NOT the customer/client.

This leads us to the obvious conclusion that, besides technical skills, a tailor is not a tailor unless he is capable of educating the customer/client on what he makes—and if what he makes is what the customer/client is looking for.

A tailor who makes suits will typically refuse to work for a client who wants his blazer made of silk. And if he agrees to such a request, he is something else, but NOT a tailor.

This is also true for software.

However, in software, the challenge is even greater. While there is enough public consensus that a typical blazer ought not to be made of silk, there is little consensus on what the standard trappings of a typical utility tool are.

Thus, in designing software, the maxim "communication is key" is too obscure.

A better maxim would be "Communicating NO is key."

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