My fear of robots, er... tools, pt 4

I have a fear of team communication being reduced as valuable interaction is now funneled into tool use.

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. 

I see this with common office tools like the phone and email. I see teams who are collocated call someone who is outside of their team rooms but located on the same floor as their team for a conversation that may last longer than a few minutes. I see teams email each other when they are collocated. That one is my personal button…

If a team is expected to keep record within a tool they may start to look to this tool as the method to communicate. I have seen team say "Why do it twice?" The tool is often not for them but, if they are judged by what it contains, they may start to use it as the only method of communication. CYA becomes the rule of thumb. I have seen test specialists and dev specialists who sit right next to each other speak to each other through the test case tracking software. Very frustrating…

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Robots - Destroyer_Droid_BW_SML.jpg