Reason 4: Team Specialists Don't Always Work in Integrated Ways - II

Each development group functions independently, almost as a silo, and the final product often reflects this approach. The help center will not adequately support the user interface or it will be organized very differently from the interface. Or user documentation and help will be redundant with little

cross-referencing. Or the documentation will not reflect the latest version of the user interface. You get the picture.

The problem occurs when the product is released. The end user, upon receiving this new product, views it and expects it to work as a single, integrated product, as shown in Figure 1-3. He or she makes no particular

distinction among the three components, and each one is expected to support and work seamlessly with the others. When the product does not work in this way, it clashes with the user's expectations, and whatever advantages accrue through specialization are lost.

Even more interesting is how often organizations unknowingly exacerbate this lack of integration by usability testing each of the components separately. Documentation is tested separately from the interface, and the interface separately from the help. Ultimately, this approach is futile, because it matters little if each component is usable within itself. Only if the components work well together will the product be viewed as usable and meeting the user's needs.