1	Steven Marcus Marcus Software Designs, Inc 4425-C Treat Blvd., #223 Concord, CA 94521 Voice- (925)521-9876 Fax (925)521-9875 smarcus@MarcusSoftwareDesigns.com http://www.MarcusSoftwareDesigns.com The Customer Is Always Wrong The gap between the business requirements and the systems that enable them.
2	Discussion
3	You know things are wrong when… You have a Customer table with an attribute called ‘LastName’! You have a Contact table with an attribute called ‘LastName’! You have a Member table with an attribute called ‘LastName’! And so on…
4	What’s The Problem? Business Baggage (confusing what and how) Paving Cow Paths (automating ancient paradigms) Confusing Syntax with Semantics – examples of bad syntax, e.g. a Customer, a Member, an Issue, a Security ROOT PROBLEM: We confuse WHOM we have a relationship WITH the relationship
5	A Deeper Problem “..a person tends to see the world as conforming to the words he has been taught to use about it." Alfred Korzybski
6	Common Terms Customer Client Member Contact Security Asset Issue
7	When is a Person or an Organization a.. Customer? Member? Client? Contact?
8	What makes a Person or an Organization a.. Customer? Client? Member? Contact?
9	Read the company’s mission… Maximize Customer Satisfaction Maximize Share value
10	How to confuse Users: Ask a bunch of different users from different parts of the organization to define ‘customer’!
11	The Typical Widget-Oriented Organization
12	Whose Customer comes first? To Marketing, the Customer could be end-users e.g. Field the help-desks, perform focus groups, determine market desires and needs To Sales, the Customer could be channels e.g. Arrange relationships and price structures through intermediaries or directly to individuals To Manufacturing, the Customer could be sub-contractors e.g. Arrange relationships with internal and external developers To Purchasing, the Customer could be Vendors e.g. Arrange for least cost resources; quick turnaround, etc.
13	Business & System Perspectives Business terms are highly contextual and those terms change in situations, e.g. Customer and User System terms are generalized to accommodate several contexts and situations, e.g. Person and Transaction
14	Language Language is our tool for communicating. Business: Human to Human; Human to Human Interface (GUI) System: Human Interface to System
15	Current Business Systems Problems Situation specific – even within the same application Many applications ‘evolved’ using role relationships as people and organizations Poor decision support; have to resort to complex and error-prone data ‘scrubbing’ Brittle applications
16	Relationship is King We know ‘who’ things are based on relationships Relationships define context Relationships define what People and Organizations are, i.e. their Role Business does not measure People or Organizations – it measures the relationship
17	Derived Role Example From a stripped down business point of view, we have some Party, a Person or Organization, that wishes to collaborate with another Party, a Person or Organization, to engage in a business activity that results in a transaction.
18	Account The THING we use to measure a relationship is called an ‘Account’. The Account is the object that provides a context for the relationship. Actually, the Account IS the relationship. Its fundamental function is to aggregate all of the events that transpire between the measurer role and consumer role within the relationship. That is, the Account relates to every transaction with the measured.
19	Account Pattern
20	Role Provides the context for an Account. Establishes the scope of transactions. Provides contexts for other Roles.
21	Account Pattern - Alternate
22	Account Pattern – Alternate 2
23	States Roles and States are similar. Both reflect the ‘situation’ a thing is in. e.g. Order may be similar to Person as an Entity An Order could play the ‘role’ of (or be in the state of) “Pending”, “Sold”, “Rejected”, “Returned”, etc.
24	Order Example
25	How Do We Modify It?
26	General Semantics "In the work on General Semantics we wanted to preserve the term semantics because of its international character and its general applicability. As we are interested in the relation of words and facts, etc., I introduced the term General Semantics to indicate a general theory of values, a general theory of evaluation of facts, relations, 'feelings', etc., not of meaning by mere verbal definition. In General Semantics we are interested in actual evaluational reactions and not only what we say about them." Alfred Korzybski
27	Challenges Language, Information, Ex-formation Business Culture Mimicry
28	Summary Certain business terminology should not find its way as fundamental entities. The underlying form that we care about are relationships. That is, relationships define status. A fundamental relationship object is an aggregator that we can call an Account. (You can call it anything you want.) Although the Customer is always wrong, that relationship is King!
29	References Science and Sanity 5^th Edition, Korzybski, A., Institute of General Semantics, 1994 Design Patterns, Gamma, E. et al., Addison Wesley, 1995 Account Pattern, Marcus, S. - http://www.marcussoftwaredesigns.com/AccountPattern.htm Analysis Patterns, Fowler, M., Addison Wesley, 1997 The User Illusion, Nrettranders, T., Viking Press, 1998
30	Thank You! Steve Marcus Marcus Software Designs, Inc. www.MarcusSoftwareDesigns.com