Information Gatekeeper in Asia

Information gatekeepers still play a dominant role in many Asia countries. Recently, I have the opportunities to participate in two different projects in American and Asia. It is interesting to see how cultures playing an important part of information gathering for these two projects. This is a quick overview on a typical information gatekeeper faced in Asia.

Characteristics

• Information given are high level and lacking in details.
• Gatekeeper are not the user of the system.
• Gatekeeper is usually in management position.
• Gatekeeper will not allow you to contact the direct users.

Counter Measures

• Utilise backlogs to capture the high level information.
• Adopt Agile to manage change and risks for the actual users.
• Mitigate information to non critical path.
• Design solution to be scalable.

Information gatekeeper role is part and parcel of IT projects in Asia. It is common to see gaps in information and actual testing with end users. The key to managing information gatekeeper is to be agile with the requirements and change. In addition, stay positive and try not to be frustrated by these gatekeepers.