Book review: What's wrong with software development

Computerworld - The title misses the mark, and the detours into architecture are overdone. But the new book Wrench in the System, by Harold Hambrose (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2009), has one powerful message: We're building our enterprise software applications all wrong.

Think about how you feel when you use a well-designed product. It feels good, works great, makes the job easier, is enjoyable to use and requires little or no training. That certainly doesn't describe enterprise software such as ERP systems, which require a huge amount of training and force people to alter the way they work to suit the system.

Hambrose says the reason so many enterprise software projects fail is that the software is bought or built by people who are out of touch with those who will use the applications on a daily basis.

Sure, today's IT professionals and business analysts work hard to determine user requirements, but they often ask the wrong questions and get unhelpful answers. Hambrose says the missing ingredient is what he calls professional product designers. He's not talking about people who select color palettes and icons, but designers who are trained observers of human behavior and know the right questions to ask, such as the following:

• Who will be using this software?
• Will they understand the instructions and error messages?
• Why do they have so many Post-it notes sprinkled around?
• Which tasks will they perform most often?
• Can we improve the workflow first?
• Can we reduce the clutter on the screen?

Hambrose doesn't tell us how CIOs are supposed to find the designers, human factors experts, industrial psychologists and corporate anthropologists who might be able to transform software development into user-centered design.

But he does offer this tantalizing, ambitious goal: Businesses need software "that sparks excitement in its target community of human users -- excitement that their work is easier and more enjoyable, that they have become more effective, and that their employer is supplying tools that make them feel like part of a winning team."

We have a long way to go.

Read more about development in Computerworld's Development Knowledge Center.