Working as Designed

The term Working as Designed, or WAD for short, is a much-hated term in the software business.  When a customer finds a feature missing and they're told it's WAD, they scream and rail against the system.  Working as Designed has become the equivelent of Poor Design.

In real-life terms, we're all working as designed.  And when we're designed with a body that's too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall, too anything, we don't like it anymore than a software customer.  "I hate my fat thighs!"  "I wish I was taller!"  "Why can't I run a 5k in 30 minutes?"

In the software world, if a customer wants to change something, they open a Change Request, or CR with new requirements.  We'll look at it, ask questions if we don't understand, and then have our developers estimate it.  In real life, if you want to change something, you do something similar.  You figure out what you want to change, and take the steps necessary to get to what you want.

And sometimes in both worlds, you might get one of the following answers:

1. You can do it, but it will cost you, either in time, money, or changing what you do today (I want to lose weight; I can do that by eating right and exercising (changing process), or I can pay a surgeon for a tummy tuck.)


2. It can't be done.  The product was built in a way that the desired change cannot be made.  At least not now.  Future technology might make it possible (I'd like to be a little taller please, and by the way, I'd like my Mom and Dad back).

And when I get either of the answers above, my inclination is to stomp my feet and whine "life is so unfair!".  Even so, I work pretty darn well as designed, with a 66% up time (the rest of the time is spent in nightly maintenance), a strong frame (hardware) that allows me to do anything I want to do with just a little effort, and a mind (software) that lets me dream of the future.