Just that.

Many people think of the development pipeline starts at the point where the developers pick up the next requirement. And it’s true that if you work in a large organisation that treats software production like a factory—or which is just siloed—then that’s all you may ever see. You may even spend a happy part of your career there.

But all that development work is wasted if the requirements aren’t well-shaped… or if they’re for the wrong thing entirely. If you don’t pay attention to the earliest part of the pipeline then the later activity is a poor use of precious resources.

So if you’re worrying about how your development team can be effective it’s a good idea to look a little further upstream than you might be used to.

Photo by splityarn