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Steve Hallman
Steve Hallman

Posted on Originally published at theagilecouch.com on

“Feature” is Ambiguous.

Great joke of course.

We’ve used the word feature to the point that it’s lost specific meaning. A feature could mean, “this field will retain your data for the next time you log in”. A feature could also mean “big green button”. A feature could also be almost any object or landmark. That big rock that looks like a bird’s head is a feature on the way to the world’s largest ball of twine.

I realized this as I was writing about an accidental behavior, that some might claim helps a customer. “Well, it wasn’t planned, but you could consider that a benefit if…”

This is the reasoning behind the joke, “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature”.

My question was, “Was this designed as a feature?”

I realized someone could answer, “Yes, that field is a feature”. Or be confused, thinking “The Product Owner created that object as a feature (story), and we made it. Of course it’s a feature”.

I don’t mean “was this object as part of the GUI, designed?”

What I really should be asking is, “Did someone argue that this would intentionally create a benefit for the customer?”

“Does this add value?”, is something we should be asking more often.

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