Transition and Restart, book six: Secrets unveiling

Chapter two, 2017, ends and beginnings, part five

I didn't expect them to make out like that. Kyoko felt a little guilty. She was, after all, the one who pushed Noriko to be a little more greedy.

"Something's wrong?"

"Sorry, no, nothing." She put away the touchpad. The waterproof touchpad she had requested Urufu acquire well over a month ago.

He complied, and by now she did some of their planning and analysis together with Yukio in the family bath.

"Yukio, could you cut another fifteen percent?"

He moved over to her side, and she revelled in his naked body. Despite everything Urufu and Kuri-chan said she very much appreciated watching Yukio whenever they shared a bath.

"Ten or twelve," he said after checking the screen. "Doesn't need trimming to be honest." He looked at her. "That's my girl." He smiled. "Seeing that we could cut it down even more, that is."

A little of his ability must have rubbed off then. "This part," she said. "It's a little process centric, but I want to keep it that way."

"How so?"

"Well, you know how Urufu wants us to be product centric, but this just rubs me the wrong way."

Yukio stared at her with more interest in his eyes. "Elaborate," he said, copying one of Urufu's favourite expressions whenever he went into teaching mode.

"Well," Kyoko started. "They're delivering a service." Despite having trouble finding the words she knew where she wanted to go with this one. "If you reduce it to the tangible components then who's going to take responsibility for it?"

Yukio grinned. "You'd call an outdoor spa a component?"

Kyoko nodded so hard she splashed water all over the touchpad. "Definitely! They're not selling spas in the first place. You can't buy one without at least a one year service agreement."

Yukio put the edge of both his thumbs in his mouth. He was adorably cute like that. "I'm listening."

"A spa's basically a bathtub. They're selling a bathing experience, and that's a lot more." Words were really the hard part. "Look, Yukio, a bathtub can't have a goal." No that wasn't right. "Those making a bathtub can have a goal, but not those servicing it."

"Huh?"

She knew she was being unclear. "I want someone being responsible for the entire sale, and I want everyone involved actually being involved in the entire sale. And involvement is process rather than product."

"Are you saying..."

"Yes, I'm saying Urufu is wrong about this. He's got it backwards, at least here. They're not selling off the shelf software."

"I what?"

Kyoko looked up at the voice. Urufu walking with a towel in his hand and Noriko tagging along just behind him. They just got together. Guess she's still conscious of being naked around him.

"Urufu, have a look at my suggestion. If you like it you can sprinkle all those fancy words around."

Urufu read through what she had written. "So you want to drop the product centric approach?"

Kyoko nodded.

"You know it's kind of built into the very backbone of agile development."

"Then there's an error in that backbone," she stubbornly persisted.

"Convince me!"

"Look, Urufu," she was getting agitated now, "people who can't say why they're doing something should just stop doing it."