In my space, there are a lot of parallels between the virtual space and the physical space. When I see a cup, I see a cup class. Then I think how it’s a unique cup, so it’s an extension of the cup class, perhaps, if we were to think about how cups are manufactured, then it’s a cup factory class, and it’s merely an object of that factory. So on.
Before a test is written, there is a clear understanding of what is expected to happen, and the test is considered incomplete until the test passes the assertion. It’s interesting because in the real world, I believe these are simply listing one’s expectations.
As a leader, I think it’s clear to communicate the things you TRULY care about in regards to your company. Just like in test driven development, you don’t care about the how things are defined, or constructed, but there’s a definite end result you care about. Your job as a leader is to communicate that end result. To illustrate this concept and the underlying reactions to such declarations, for example, lets say you said you care about the following things: Conversion rates, sales, traffic, site speed. The people who are responsible for those things might react as follows:
Conversion rates:
- Examine existing conversion rates
- Examine which pages convert the best, gather lessons
- Monitor conversion rates across the site
- Monitor overall conversion rate performance
Sales:
- Examine existing sales
- Examine which products sell the best, figure out why it sells the best
- Examine current audience and existing markets
- Devise a way to expand audience and market
- Monitor sales and etc
Etc.
My point is, to do an effective job, clear definition of what needs to be done, will allow the people who are responsible for execution to determine how much resources are required, and if there are insufficient resources, which corners to cut. One of my mentors told me, in a project, you can control 2 of 3 things: Resources, Features, or Time, but never all three. Listing your expectation is the equivalent of listing the features. If you don’t want a person dedicated to these tasks, then that’s a resource constraint, and the execution team will respond with how much longer such constraints will delay the expected results. A leader doesn’t need to execute, but a leader needs to plan, communicate, assess, and make judgment calls based on assessments.