Making Breakfast

Toasters are in the air today. I had two separate conversations about toasters with attendees at TechEd 2010. I’m paraphrasing:

1: “Look, just because you skillfully operate a toaster, doesn't necessarily mean you can make breakfast" "Making breakfast" calls for a number of integrated skills, of which "operating toaster V.N" is only one. Concentrate all your documentation on the operation  of the toaster and you will not ever get breakfast served!”

2: “To learn how to operate a toaster, you don’t start by reading the schematics. You start with the operations procedures. Why do these always seem to get written last, in haste, by people who do not make toast, much less serve breakfast?”

Even in the future, when toasters can talk and have AI…

…we still ain’t getting breakfast till we get the point that the customer is not that interested in grilled bread products. The customer has spoken.