Today we handed the defect log of our testing back over to our customer to review and assign priorities. Unfortunately, he chose to discuss the defects with the developer. Why is that bad? Because if the customer is asking which defects are quick fixes, versus determining the ones that provide the most value, we are wasting precious time. Besides the fact that in the process, the customer has pulled the developer away from working on the next highest priority item, if he's constantly popping questions on the fly to our developer, then it's interrupting and causing wasted ramp up time to get back up on what he had been working on. Besides, that, the developer gets the message that the easy fixes should be done sooner rather than later. There is nothing preventing that developer from jumping in ahead and working the small stuff, when there are far more pressing things that will need his undivided attention after the BAs have reviewed the priorities.
You may think I'm being trivial, but for every interruption, it takes a developer about 20 minutes to ramp up. So, with 2 interruptions, the developer has to ramp up 4 times and at 20 minutes a change, that's fast approaching an hour and a half of precious time. How did I get "4?" Think for moment. I ask you a question, you take time to think about it, get all the facts together, we are at 20 minutes. But when you answer the question and return to what you were doing before the question, that's another ramp up that occurs, another 20 minutes. This is why we try very hard to prevent our customers from direct contact with developers during development phases. It's only in the best interest of the project and in the name of "efficiency."
As part of our role as BAs, it's key to the project to teach these concepts to repeat customers. It'll absolutely streamline your development process. Of course, that's assuming you have a good handle on requirements.
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