The demo next time
Someone recently called me a “demo kind of guy”. He meant it as a compliment and he was right.
But today I went to a meeting and planned for the future instead of doing a demo. It was all very succesful - and yet I felt a little frustrated afterwards. Then I realized why.
Software developers live with the idea that software is always changing. Building software that can deal with change is hard but possible - and as soon as it’s working we want to show off.
But most people see software only as the means to something - and wonder why they never seem to get there. Unfinished software rarely brings any sense of accomplishment: it’s too far from what they want.
Enter the skilled storyteller! He will say what everyone (developers and their customers) want to hear: you are all somewhere in the middle of a good story with a happy ending.
And a good storyteller knows when a demo is a necessary part of the story. But I’ll demo next time, anyway - we all have our favorite stories. 