Cultural and Political Requirements: Type 16

Cultural and political requirements are special factors that would make the product unacceptable because of human customs, religions, languages, taboos, or prejudices. These requirements can originate from almost any aspect of human behavior. The main reason for cultural requirements comes when we try and sell a product into a different country, particularly when their culture and language is very different from our own.

Morrison, Terri, Wayne Conaway, and George Borden. Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: How to Do Business in Sixty Countries. B. Adams, 1995.

The first time your authors went to Italy, looking forward to experiencing the lively Italian atmosphere, we found an elegant, stainless steel coffee bar the sort of place always full of beautifully dressed people all talking at once. We went to the bar and ordered two cappuccini and two pastries. The barman gave us a lengthy explanation in Italian, shook his head and pointed to the cashier. Thus we discovered a cultural requirement: In Italian coffee bars, it is necessary to first go to the cashier and pay, and only then to go to the bar, hand over your receipt, and place your order (Figure 8.6). At the risk of being deprived of our morning coffee, we soon learned to fit into the culture.

Figure 8.6.

Sometimes cultural requirements are not immediately obvious.

We take our own culture for granted, and we don't give a lot of thought to how other people might perceive our products and ourselves. When we see "before and after" advertising, the "before" is on the left because Western culture reads from left to right. But consider those cultures that read from right to leftunless the "before" and "after" are labeled, they see the advertised product as being detrimental.

Axtell, Roger (editor). Do's and Taboos Around the World. John Wiley & Sons,1993.

Cultural requirements are often unexpected, and at first glance sometimes appear to be irrational. But you have to keep in mind that the reason behind the requirements lies outside your own culture. If your reaction is "Why on earth do they do it like that?", then you have discovered a cultural requirement. You can also consider each requirement and ask yourself, "Is there anything about this requirement that is here purely because of my own culture?" We find that the best way to find cultural requirements is to seek the help of someone from that culture.

If your reaction is "Why on earth do they do it like that?", then you have discovered a cultural requirement.

If you are building a product that will serve a number of different professions, then you are likely to discover they have different cultural requirements. For example, architects are very conscious of good design, which might spawn requirements about the style of the product. Conversely, these requirements might be irrelevant to the banking profession because its culture is different.

Requirements also exist for purely political reasons. These requirements are the ones for which it is usually impossible to write a coherent rationale. Why is this requirement important to the goals of this project? "Because I say so," "because we have always done it that way," or "because it is company policy" might be the response. While we do not encourage this type of requirement, we accept that they exist and we are pragmatic enough to write them. Subsequent activities, such as using the Quality Gateway, estimating these requirements' cost, or simply making them visible, might eliminate them.

Following are some requirements you might consider cultural or political.

Acceptable solutions:

All software shall be written in the United States.

Unacceptable solutions:

The product shall include no components supplied by [insert the name of your least favorite country here] companies.

Religious observances:

The product shall not display religious symbols or words associated with mainstream religions.

Political correctness:

The product shall not use any terms or icons that might possibly offend anyone on the planet.

Spelling:

The product shall use American spelling.

Forcing political or cultural alignment:

The product shall produce all output in ASD Simplified Technical English.

The more we build products for use in different walks of life, by different professions, and for different socioeconomic groups in different countries, the more we need to consider cultural requirements.