Transparency, what a concept!

The events of the recent plane crash of Asiana flight 214 in San Francisco are now focused on the NTSB investigation to determine the cause of the crash. The one word that is being repeated over and over is the “transparency” of the investigation. The role of the NTSB is to determine the cause of the crash based on an exhaustive study of all the facts. The NTSB defines themselves as the advocates of the flying public. In their role as advocates they will present their findings and the data they used to determine those findings. In fact their full disclosure will be open and transparent and potentially even adversarial to all the parties of the crash: The manufacturers of the plane the engine, the pilots and the airline. I find this whole process refreshing in that we will avoid the “spin factor” that could potentially put forth by all the parties to the crash. Would I love to see this principle applied to the business in general and more specifically to the software sales process. Being transparent during the sales process would benefit everyone, the end user would know exactly what his buying and the vendor would avoid incurring the cost and aggravation of trying to shoe horn their software to work as they portrayed it would work. Transparency eventually serves the interest of all parties to a transaction.