Wisdom from the Lucky Peach Sausage Book

I ran across this passage in the sausage book I got for Christmas and thought it was worth sharing.

The takeaway for me is that the famous expression about "seeing how the sausage is made" should be less about hiding things and more about helping people to understand all that goes into producing something. For me this is most applicable to making software.

We try to be very transparent at my job. But sometimes it can be tempting to gloss over details when talking to business users. They don't understand what we're doing, and often they don't care. They just want to know what comes out the other end of the process. However, I have found that with the right person, putting in the time and energy to help them understand how it works and all the nuance that went into it can yield some impressive results. I've seen an increased level of respect for the craft, as well as an increased sense of ownership. Sometimes it can be worth it to show someone the sausage factory.

It's also important to note that this is a 2 way street. If you're a software dev, PM, BA, QA, etc, there can be vast dividends realized by taking the time to understand how the business does what they do and why. Often just by asking questions you can affect positive change in processes, as well as have a better understanding of what you're building.

The end result of both efforts is better software, which is what we should always be about.