Refactoring at Scale

Chapter 7. Communication

A friend of mine, we’ll call her Elise, recently embarked on a house-building journey. Over a period of several months, Elise became intimately involved with every step of the process. She coordinated with plumbers, electricians, carpenters, tile-layers, and countless crews cycling in and out of her build site. Each of these professionals worked in tight-knit teams, bringing her home to life, piece by piece.

Every so often, some of Elise’s friends, like me, would ask her how the house was coming along. She’d launch into an epic tale about the bathroom tiles, pulling out pictures of samples she considered, detailing the many phone calls required to replace the original batch when most of them arrived cracked. Then she’d realize she hadn’t told me about the plans for the second bathroom and pivot to a new set of anecdotes.

I did love hearing about how her house was coming along, but Elise’s nonlinear storytelling, coupled with the grueling detail, was a bit too much for me (and many of her other friends). So, after a few conversations, we asked her to start a blog. There, she could document the progress, complete with pictures and arduous detail, and we could periodically check in and casually browse at our leisure. We’d found a way of keeping up with the construction in a medium that worked for everyone.

Elise has a direct, detail-oriented approach in her everyday communication with the construction crews, and more of a big-picture approach in her blog. ...