Mushy Verbs Copy

In process model names and the box/activity names, we want to avoid mushy words.

The thing is, these verbs build a false sense of consensus. They are NOT testable, nor programmable, and likely mean different things to the very same people who agreed on it.

The BA and PO roles need to listen for these words and act! Acting means offering suggestions for what alternative words might work for the context of the user’s needs. When you hear someone say something like “the user needs to manage their profile”, you listen for the word manage, recognize it as mushy, and reply with something like “Ok, so manage their profile…. let’s look at what that entails. They should be able to create a profile?  Ok, and update their profile?  Ok, and what data can they update?  And view their profile?  Delete their profile?  Any timing considerations to when they can do these actions?”

Now THIS is getting into great requirements and user experience dialog!!!  Can you see how powerful knocking out these mushy words can be?

 

 

Here is a link to a downloadable resource to pin up to remind you of mushy words and better verbs to use!