There are over 60 people involved in product development at ACS Technologies. Included in this group are the design analyst, programmers, testers, and technical writers. With this large of group, how do you get them to interact with customers using the products they produce? One way is to bring customers to the developers.
This week we have had a group of nine customers from some of the larger churches using ACS visit our home office in Florence SC. The group was assembled to help with the design of some new products. I was able to sit in on some of the sessions and saw the benefits of having customers and developers spend time together. Features were identified, discussed, and given priority. Screen mock-ups were developed, changed, discussed, and changed some more; all the normal things that take place when software is developed.
One of the best outcomes of the week has been an increased understanding by our developers of what churches are trying to accomplish with ACS. There is nothing like have a user of the software explain to a developer how important ACS is to supporting the ministry of the church.
Thanks to the nine customers that took a week out of their busy schedule to help further the development of ACS for all churches.