All this revision arises from the choice-based person's need to tinker. They don't know what they want and they sign off on proposals only to disavow them later. If you hand them a proposal, chances are they'll sign it because it's a concrete procedure that makes them comfortable. If they later see a system that works better than theirs, then that becomes the right way, and that's what they'll want. They don't have all the detail they need and the exact procedures to run the jobs, and programmers don't follow all their rules.
Prototypes are an excellent way to give users a concrete understanding of what they're buying.
Finally, those computer people who are rule-based can be used very effectively as user and operations liaisons. Users who are choice-based are not as effective as liaisons because they tend to raise the level of tinkering, not reduce it. Someone's stalking your directory. Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited.