Rolf presented a valid critique and some questions on our previous article announcing the launch of nexus. I started writing a long response, and realized it would work well as an article for analysis of our process over the last month. Here it is.
APR: Scope and Vision – Vote On It
In the discussion on our article about understanding users as part of our agile software development case study, Rolf raised an interesting question about the scope and vision of having people rate articles: I’m wondering what an ‘article’ is. Does it have characteristics? Is it just some piece of knowledge […]
How To Start The Use Case Process For Agile Software Development
One of the goals of agile software development is to deliver value quickly and iteratively. One of the most effective ways to begin the software development process is with use cases. To deliver with agility, you start with the most valuable use case, bang it out, and then move on to the next most valuable use case. How do you know which use case is the most valuable if you haven’t defined all the use cases first?
Writing Incomplete Requirements
Writing Complete requirements is one of the twelve elements of writing good requirements. Sometimes, you don’t have the opportunity to finish the job, and are forced to write incomplete requirements. How would you go about doing that?
Prioritization With ROI and Utility
Prioritization with ROI is generally thought of as a quantitative analysis. For hard ROI, that is true. For soft ROI, it is anything but true. You have to make a prediction of the utility of the requirement or feature. That predicted utility is based on our expected utility, which is based on your past experiences. Your past experiences are reflected in remembered utility, which is a function of experienced utility. How can you know with certainty, and use that to prioritize requirements or features?
Differentiate Your Product – Circumvent Comparisons
Look Ma! Me Too! The temptation to compete against a checklist can be overwhelming. When we have a competitor who provides 100 of this or 200 of that, it might seem smart to offer 200 of this and 300 of that. We’ll be better off if we focus instead on creating the other thing. The best way to compete is to valuably differentiate our product, not outdo our competition.
More is better features are just that – more is better. But more of the same old thing is worth a whole lot less than some of something else.
The Wisdom of Crowds Prevents People’s Passions
The wisdom of crowds helps us avoid stupid decisions. Unfortunately, it also prevents innovative, passionate, fantastic decisions. Collective Intelligence is collective insipidness. We need to keep the inputs of individuals in the mix.
Fifteen Ways to Shut Down
There are 15 ways for someone to shutdown a laptop running Windows Vista. This adds unwarranted complexity to our software. How can we avoid the same problem in our software?
How To Not Suck At Design
Michael Shrivathsan just wrote an article presenting five tips for creating products with great design. Michael’s List Start with the user interface. [Roger Cauvin adds, start with a working first iteration] Work closely with UI designers. Pay attention to details. Simpler is better. Be brave. Our Thoughts User centric design […]