Ask Slashdot: Technical Resources For Non-Technical Disciplines?

New submitter nashpt writes: An accountant friend has recently joined a startup looking at developing a web platform. My friend is now dealing with developers directly where he would not have done so previously and feels he is at somewhat of a disadvantage. He asked me if I could advise on how he could get knowledgeable in the relevant technologies, HTML and JavaScript, in order to better interact with their developers. While there are numerous resources available to learn to program both of these, I didn't feel that would be the best approach; if nothing else, because he will have significant constraints on his time. Instead I looked for any primers that focus on technical subjects for non-technical disciplines. I haven't found much I think would be suitable for his needs. I appreciate this is a broad subject but can you recommend any resources that would be suitable in general or specific to these technologies? Do you even agree that this is an appropriate approach or should he look to develop a working knowledge of these languages instead? Any other suggestions on how to approach this?

Comments

Account should not try to "get knowledgeable"

[viking80]

Account should not try to "get knowledgeable" in HTML and JavaScript. He will only seem more of an idiot.
1. Be a great accountant, and dominate your existing field. Teach developers how to make the products more profitable
2. Be a human and a user, and gain user and interface expertise, so you can say what you think about the product with authority and clarity. Tell the developers how to make a more usable product.
3. Can your expertise be used to improve the product? Accounting skills may be important for the platform to make money, and the financial analysis tools needed to understand the web platforms performance.

Re:Account should not try to "get knowledgeable"

[gweihir]

And on the technological side, get somebody that really knows this stuff, and in particular understands security aspects. Can be a consultant. The problem is that there is a ton of web-technology out there, and most of it is bad or at least not very good. Using the wrong tech can easily kill the project, either by never delivering or by delivering something that is not fit to be used.

Re:Account should not try to "get knowledgeable"

[Qzukk]

This is absolutely what the programmers need. Someone who can explain domain knowledge and how they expect to use the software without starting to go off on about how you can just use a database widget to manipulate the numbers here in that java thingy. If I was going to write accounting software, I don't need someone telling me what library function to use to calculate interest, I need someone to tell me what happens when a user chooses cash basis or accrual basis, and which one is a more likely choice so we can make that the default and save the user a click (or perhaps it is absolutely vital that the user chooses one without simply accepting a default).

The general case of learning to ____ for the purpose of interacting with someone who _____s makes my skin crawl. The accountant should consider this the other way around and ask himself how they'd feel if the programmers started coming up to him to ask if his receivable cash bases are dollar averaged or some other mishmash of terms that will hopefully sound inane to an accountant.

That said, there's nothing wrong with learning to program for the sake of learning to program, and if he was able to bootstrap himself to a level appropriate for the task on hand it would almost certainly be beneficial to himself and his team (unless his team members are paranoid that he's looking to replace them). The main issue is the strain he'd put on the programmers if he tries at too low of a level, and the programmers end up taking time from their actual job function to train him.

Re:Account should not try to "get knowledgeable"

[whoever57]

The accountant is clearly worried that his technical guys will BS him. Ask him how long it would take someone to learn enough about accountancy before they could accurately detect BS from an accountant.

Focus on his current skills

[psyclone]

He seems to have accounting skills and a business plan to develop. Focus on those skills -- leave development decisions to the developers.

Take time to create some wire frame (pen on paper) mockups of workflows and business rules. Find similar layouts and "look & feel" from existing sites that he can give as examples to the dev team.

If he's worried the developers won't understand his requirements and he's wasting money, hire you (the friend) to interface with them. Build mock-ups as iteratively as possible without connecting any back-end logic so he is "comfortable" with the UX before spending time on the back-end.

If he already had web skills, he'd just implement the idea himself; hiring others is when you know you cannot do everything yourself. Hire fewer, but better, people. Good luck.

Re:Focus on his current skills

[trout007]

This! I don't know how many times I've been asked to take a couple days or weeks and help teach someone how to design and engineer mechanical thing. It's only taken me 30 years of life long learning so let me just boil that down for you. Specialization is what makes the modern world possible. This guy needs to focus on what he is good at.

Re:Focus on his current skills

[Ol Olsoc]

This! I don't know how many times I've been asked to take a couple days or weeks and help teach someone how to design and engineer mechanical thing. It's only taken me 30 years of life long learning so let me just boil that down for you. Specialization is what makes the modern world possible. This guy needs to focus on what he is good at.

THIS!

One part of my jobe was doing 3-D modelling and animation. And fairly often people wanted me to "teach them" how to do it. I'd been doing this stuff from Imagine on Amiga. We're talking Framebuffer and single frame VTR recorder controller days! To video Toaster Amiga to lightwave and Bryce, and now Maya. No way to impart even the beginning of anything from 25 some years of learning.

It is most definitely not for everyone. I love it. Same with programming. Same with accounting. "Okay if we just start down and you should be able to get us up to speed in an hour or so?".

But I got even with them. I said "Okay."

After 15 minutes, they had to be somewhere else.

I try to always realize that everyone's job has som real skill and experience. I'm not that impressed with most people who seem to think their job is the only complicated or difficult one.

Re:Focus on his current skills

[spire3661]

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." " -Robert A. Heinlein

Wrong approach

[gweihir]

If your friend were to develop semi- (or worse) skills, the only thing he could do is give bad technological input and make bad technological decisions. Either get somebody that has the required insights, skills, and, most importantly, experience (and experience can only be replaced by more experience) or refrain from giving technological input and making technological decisions. A good option is to get a consulting firm with respective expertise to fill that role, especially, when no full-time person is required.

Wikipedia

[phantomfive]

Wikipedia. If that's too advanced, you can always try UrbanDictionary (html = how to meet ladies).

Seriously though, I've seen people get basic literacy in HTML in a few hours. There are a lot of details beyond that, figuring out how to get things exactly where you want them on the page, how to deal with browser incompatibilities...........plenty of things that take a while to learn. But basic literacy in HTML? Start here, or maybe here.

Skip it

[Mycroft-X]

Don't bother learning a specific language, instead invest time in understanding basic principles of software structure and design. Understand object oriented principles, data structures, algorithms, and the basic concept that various blocks of the software work through interfaces. Focus on a higher level of abstraction than the specifics of a given language and he'll understand enough to say "and then this section of code needs to pass this information on to the next section of code which does this stuff with it, then passes the result to this next stage."

don't bother

[spongman]

developers aren't interested in advisers or clients telling them how to code. they're interested in learning the requirements and domain-specific knowledge that those people have that helps them design the best product to fill their needs. the best language with which to convey these requirements isn't code. it's not photoshop (UX designers: listen) it's english. preferably spoken, maybe loudly, in a room with coffee and whiteboards, lots of both.

Re:yeah, replace him

[Darinbob]

He doesn't need to know that technology. And by the time he learns it that knowledge will be outdated. He needs to do his job and the devs do theirs. If there's communication that's needed then the devs need to communicate with someone who doesn't understand silly details, in the same way that the accountant needs to communicate without reciting paragraph numbers of Sorbanes-Oxley.

Does he realize the developers feel the same way?

[jeff4747]

The developers don't understand the nuances and lingo of accounting.

A cursory knowledge is just enough to get you in big trouble if you try to use it.

Kind of like a business analyst

[rgbe]

It sounds like the start-up is in need of a business analyst (BA). And this could well be the role of your accountant friend. I am an experienced business analyst with a technical background, although I know many business analysts who have little or no technical background. The role of the business analyst is to work with the stakeholders (e.g. developers, users, management, etc) to design solutions (technical or not). The business analyst creates documentation (user stories, business requirements, business logic flow diagrams, etc) by working with the stakeholders. The developers and testers then use this documentation to develop the solution. There are many business analysis books out there, one of the most popular is the BABOK (Business Analyst Body of Knowledge), see https://www.iiba.org/babok-gui.... It has many tools that a BA requires. But I don't recommend your friend becomes a full blown BA, but it may help to learn some tools and techniques described in the BABOK.

I always see the Business Analyst as an interpreter or go-between, between the business and the developers. And the Business Analyst uses tools (i.e. methods of documentation) to formally describe what the customers want.

Re:Kind of like a business analyst

[i work on computers]

Maybe I've never worked with a good one, but all BAs have ever done on my projects is muddy the message and bill hours.