ECE 435 - HW #1

Why DRAMA Failed

Jason Denning

DRAMAstandsforDesignRationaleMAnagement,itwasasmallstartup
companythatfocusedonengineersrecordingtheirrationalefordesigndecisions.
Theintentwasforanyinitialdesignerstositdownaftermakinganysignificant
decisionsandrecordthemotivesbehindthosedecisions.Inturnwhensomebody
revisitedthesystemyears,ordecades,downtheline,thebarriertounderstanding
thesystemwouldbeminimized.Manymanagementteamswereextremelyexcited
abouttheproductasitwouldreduceoverheadwhileengineershadtorelearnabout
oldsystems.Thismanagementsupportcaused4bigprocessengineeringcompanies
toinvestintheidea.Intheendnoonepurchasedalicense,andeventhecompanies
thatinvestedandfundedtheproductneverusedit.
Sowhydiditfail?Themostprominentreason:theyfailedtoaccountforthe
mostsignificantstockholder,theenduser.Thebasisoftheproductwasaskingbusy
engineerstostopinthemiddleoftheirworkflowtomakeavideothatmayormay
noteverbewatchedbysomeonetheymayormaynotknowatsomearbitrarypoint
inthefuture.Notveryappetizing.Ontopofthat,poorforethoughtandlackof
clarificationtostarttheprojectmeantthattheprimarystockholdersthatwerein
contactwiththecompanyneglectedtorealizethatbyrecordingrationale,they
wouldbeopeningabigblackdoorfortheircompetitorstostealtradesecretsandfor
thecompanytobeheldaccountableforanymistakes.
Aswellaspoorstakeholdercommunication,thecompanyfailedinafewother
areasaswell.Theyneglectedtoaccountfortheirrelianceonintegrationwithother
products.Seeingastheywerefocusedonengineers,integrationwithtoolssuchas
CADwasessential.Theyneglectedtoaccountforthisinthedesignphaseandwerent
abletorecoverwhentheissuearose.Also,managementdidntdotheirduediligence
whenbringingonnewteammembersandabadcookiedestroyedteammorale.
Finally,andpossiblyworstofall,theyignoredwhattheirdatawastellingthem.They
developedtheproductinatwophaseapproach,inthefirstphasetheywere
supposedtodevelopaproofofconcept,thenifthatwassuccessfultheywouldflesh
outafullclient-serverversion.However,blindedbytheirgrandvision,theyfailedto
analyzeandaltertheirprojectwhentheproofofconceptsufferedpooradoption
rates.Theysimplypushedonwiththeirfullversioninstead.
Overall,theylost3yearsofworkandallinvestedmoney.Theproducthas
beenentirelydiscontinuedandneversawasubscribeduser.