• Hey, this is just little old me over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery, but I've seen far too many end users whose job is made harder by the solution they have to use and find other, easier ways to get the job done. There have also been times I've mentioned users' struggles with a given solution to a developer and they are totally clueless that anybody would find it difficult or that it winds up causing extra work.

    For the most part, everything IT does or creates ultimately affects someone and how they do their job, whether we work for them or beside them. Sure, people can do their jobs *well* without the exposure, but as the editorial points out, data is often dealt with as a "widget" with little thought as to someone actually will end up using this widget.

    To me, part of doing my job well means understanding (as much as possible in a given situation) my customers, internal or external, be they my boss, my co-worker, another department or a paying client. This goes a bit beyond just participating with other departments (which I wholeheartedly endorse).

    Again, just my little $0.02.

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    Just my $0.02 from over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery - please adjust for inflation and/or your local currency.