Sometimes the only answer is "because that's the way we do it".
In every other nook and cranny of the world where pattern is flown - from Norway to Nigeria to Malaysia to South Africa to Bora Bora - these rules are simply understood and followed because that is what we, as a collective community of like-minded hobbyists, have agreed that we will do.
Seems to work everywhere but with a small minority here.
This reminds me of the many conversations I've had as an element of my professsional life.Any justification for a rule/activity that is enforced/performedwhichamounts to "because that's the way we do it" or "everyone does it" immediately raises red flags.
The interactions/conversations typically go something like this ...<span style="font-size: 9pt">
Q: Your process, means and methods were analyzedand we found you do "X" but we are unable to determine thevalue in doing "X".Maybewe missed something. Please explain why you do "X"?
A: We have always done "X".
Q. But what purpose does "X" serve? How does doing "X" improve the quality of your mission/business?
A. Well, when I came herewe were doing "X". Now that I'm in chargewe continue to do "X" because I see no reason to stop doing it. In fact, I have instituted improvements to do "X" better.
Q. Interesting. So how does doing "X" better impact your bottom line?
A. Well, we instituted changes and are doing a much better job of accomplishing "X".Wecut costs by 1/4 and aremore efficient at doing “X”.
Q. So you cliam you have improved how you do "X", but you can’t correlate those improvements in terms of bottom-line benefit to yourmission/business.
A. Well, if you put it that way, no we have not.
Q. OK. You broughtus in to review your process and suggest improvements.We find no mission/business justification for the investment you make to do "X".We recommend you stop doing "X". Will you give it a try?
A. No, we can't possibly do that. We have always done "X", everyone else does X,and I'm not about to change it. Besides, I can find many people around here that can explain why we do "X". Perhaps not to your satisfaction. But we do HAVE OUR REASONS.
As a relatively newparticipant in the pattern communityI'mmonitoring this discourse from a cost/benefit "value-added"perspective. RIX is asking the right questions. But he is getting no meaningful answers. Responses - yes. Answers - no. Each ruleshould directly achieve or contribute to achievement of anobjective and should have rationale for how it is intended to acheive that objective.Doing so provides themeans to "test" the rule periodically to determine if it is serving its intended purpose - and provides a platform for subsequent improvement of the "overall process".
Anyone subjectedto adherence to the rule should be able to obtain aclear statement of objective and rationalefor that rule.
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