Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

274Chapter 11Balancing Acts: An Imaginary Scenario• Interoperability: there’s no requirement to interoperate with any othersoftware but here’s an idea for a future version: export/import into CSVformat for spreadsheets, and/or XML format for future expansion).• Response time: “reasonable” interactive speed; subsecond response whenentering new accounts and values, so that the user can type quickly andcontinuously; waiting, if it occurs, should only be at button presses, notbetween data entries.11.7.2 Stakeholder Buy-InStakeholder buy-in can be another important part of a software project. As wediscussed in Section 11.5, stakeholders are any of those people who are touchedin some way, direct or indirect, by this software project.For this simple budgeting program, there will be few stakeholders—it willlargely be Ellen and her direct reports. The system will not likely be a largedrain on computing resources, so system admins don’t need to be brought inat this point. If and when the project expands to include other users across thenetwork and across the enterprise, then the system administrators shoulddefinitely be included. There will be few reports from this first cut of theproject, and what few there are will only be read by Ellen and her direct reports,so again, there are few others that need to be consulted as stakeholders.The idea at this stage is to listen to other points of view—those of yourstakeholders—to get a different perspective before charging headlong downone avenue of development.It’s not that you will be able to satisfy all points of view—it can be a worthygoal, but it is often unattainable. Rather, you need to hear from all thoseinvolved since your software will affect all those people, and understandingsomething about how it will fit into their roles and daily tasks will help youmake better tradeoffs and design better software. It will likely uncover previouslyunseen requirements. It also has the political benefit of those people knowingthat you cared enough to listen to them before sending them a finished solution.It increases the likelihood that your software will be seen as a help, nothinderance. 44. As engineering types it is difficult for us to understand and appreciate the importance ofthis, but in many ways these personal, political, and psychological factors are much more importantto the success of a project than are technical choices. It has taken us years to appreciate