Category: Development

There are many threats to a successful software development project. While prototyping seems on the surface to be a 100% wholesome and good thing, it does need to be used wisely and be properly qualified, or it can become one of those threats. Like other aspects of project development, prototyping needs to be done well and with purpose.

We view the prototype as a specific deliverable. It is where the vision for a project comes together. Where we communicate the following things to our clients.

We understand your problem
We know how to solve your problem
We are really good at this
Imagine your team using this tool

On the surface this may seem at odds with the article itself. The key is to establish realistic and accurate answers for the client to the obvious questions we are answering in our communication. The executive team will enter a presentation with at least a subset of the following questions:

Do they really understand my problem?
Can they solve the problem?
Did we pick the right team?
How will this work?

Mockups and wireframes will not answer these questions. This is why we deliver a working prototype that uses dummy data to emulate what the app will deliver. We gain incredible feedback and make the project “sticky” when we successfully do this.

Many times a non-technical customer will see a prototype and mistakenly assume a certain level of completeness. After all, here is a piece of software approximating a subset of what they want. It works, right? Surely it can’t take much longer to complete since they are this far? There are many ways to combat this, but often this assessment is not even conscious. Our minds assess and categorize all day long. Later in the project a misunderstood prototype can damage your relationship with the customer.

Most organizations struggle to be responsive enough to even deliver a prototype. Such an organization needs to strive to achieve this. It is a valuable skill to have in your toolbox, one that can help you win large, complex projects. A prototype allows you to demonstrate your depth of understanding of the problem, showcase your creativity, and validate your mastery of your tools. It is also an opportunity to introduce a new and hard to explain concept that might really turn a good project into a great one. These are all tremendously important reasons to build prototypes.

I have talked in the past about the tension that occurs in a project right before it is first delivered. The stakeholder cannot see into the opaque world that we are working in, and has to believe us when we tell him there has been progress. You can use issue trackers, fancy charts and graphs, even code reviews, but the truth remains: the customer is trusting you. That dark period, right before the customer has something tangible to test and evaluate, really exposes any weaknesses in your process, including poor prototyping.

In a typical application there are some core business processes and rules that drive the business needs. These are implemented, executed, and supported in a server-side application. This application might parse requests, route work, accept/calculate data, generate complex results based on inputs, or prioritize based on business rules. These efforts are typically where most of the work occurs, coding all of these processes is time-consuming and detailed work.

The user interface is often partially or wholly generated by a framework or ide and takes much less time. BUT, the user experience is what the typical executive or user at your customer will care about the most. It is also the most graphical/visual component of the system where users will interact with vital business processes. By default, this is typically where we prototype. This is the correct place to prototype but we have to be careful. We have to communicate to the customer the mountain of work required to turn a prototype into production code.

Just like a customer only hears the dollar amount when you give an estimate no matter how you qualify it, customers rarely comprehend the shell you are demonstrating to them in your prototype demo. Because, “How much longer can it possibly take if I can already see x, y, and z on the screen?” I have learned to display a complete project progression graph along with a prototype. You can see an example of one below. This does not solve the problem, I know I will still be asked later. But I will be able to refer back to a visual description that shows just how little of the project is done to generate the prototype. It is very important to not just have said the words, provide a visual that is stamped in their memory along with the fancy eye candy you are showing them in the prototype.

You cannot avoid tension from a well done prototype. Remember, a successful prototype will  excite your customer, it will demonstrate for them the direction you will take in solving their business problem: how you will fulfill the promise you made by accepting the project. Just do not be naive and think there is no risk with a prototype because there certainly is. In fact I have watched it derail multiple projects over my career.

Another thing you learn about prototypes as you gain experience is to temper what is included. It is often tempting for the younger tech designer to want to show their full arsenal and impress the client. A prototype needs to be a very intentional and calculated deliverable just like any other. Filter what you show them by understanding your goal. Make a prototype purposeful, this can mitigate an unexpected consequence later. One example is when you find out the CEO was focused on a specific secondary graphical element that got nixed early on in the project. You do not want to be explaining why his favorite thing is gone because it was included in a poorly thought out prototype.

The message is to not let your guard down. A prototype, like any other aspect of your work needs to be done with a high level of precision. Prepare your prototype like you would any other feature, with intentional goals and outcomes. A defined set of criteria can make your life much more pleasant later.

Understanding, Workflow, Delivery. These three concepts sound trite, soundbites in technology for decades (substitute Execution for Workflow during the 1990s). It is hard to overstate the value of these key ideas and it is even harder to do a good job in making them a natural part of your team’s effort. They have many enemies:

• Tyranny of the urgent

• Laziness

• Personal design preferences

• Ego

• Meetings

• Distraction

• Conflict

All of these can destroy an otherwise productive team. It is a leader’s job to manage these and protect the team from them. It is the individual team member’s responsibility to manage their own work and remove as much of this as possible. It takes everyone working diligently to work smarter for a project to succeed.

Understanding

All too often we jump into projects thinking we understand what needs to happen only to find that we did not. At that point work has to be redone, time is lost and the customer is frustrated. Disciplining your team to dig in and fully understand a set of customer requirements is important. Please note that written requirements accompany but do not replace the understanding required to provide a solution. The written requirements are a tool to use but cannot replace the cognitive process of understanding.

When you start a new project, there is a natural limit because a customer will not tolerate an extended delay at the beginning of a project. You cannot charge blindly across the customer objection but you absolutely need to understand the problem domain at a deep level. This is a fine line that is difficult to walk. Using tools in a way that trap critical information is very important to achieving this balance. Have the customer provide videos of key staff performing their work function or using their current application. Customers will want you to be present and witness this, but resist. We have found it is critical to capture this in a way it can be watched over and over again by team members. Through this process real understanding can occur. Without it your team will find it difficult to remember a meeting six months prior and have trouble decoding the typed up notes neatly stored on their computers.

It can also be helpful to listen to customers talk about their vision for the project. Again, do not do this in a meeting but obtain a recording of this. New team members can hit the ground running after reviewing such valuable materials and the tools are readily available. This is not to say you cannot have meetings that supplement this information but all too often a meeting is all that occurs. It is commonplace for notes to be sparse from these meetings and our memories are notoriously faulty.

Once you capture this knowledge it is important to translate this into a set of requirements. Sometimes customers will give you these, but most of the time they are too busy and this falls on you. Follow through and process this into a detailed list of features that can be pushed into your workflow.

Workflow

There are very few times that enterprise software will be simple, and any complex project can be derailed without a clear process for execution. There can be variations by organization, but I will speak generally of the process we use. Below you see a graphical representation of our workflow.

It is important for the project lead or architect to lay out a particular piece of work. Once it is ready it should go into a bucket where all the developers on a project can see the work that is staged. We often place these into milestones, sometimes referred to as sprints. Developers pick up the work and push the item through development, peer review, internal testing, and QA Testing.

The enemies I listed above mostly rear their heads to attack your workflow. There are always reasons that make sense at the time that lead to workflow destruction. A leader is responsible for guarding the gate. If any of these are allowed into the team and allowed to take root, there is a high likelihood of project cancellation, termination, and failure. Pushing items efficiently through a workflow allow for the most important part of a software project to occur: delivery.

Delivery

From a customer’s perspective you have not really done much until they have software in their hands. Use the previous two efforts to both understand the core features and aggressively push them through your workflow. Use your understanding to plot the quickest path to putting software in customer hands for comment, feedback, and tactile success. Getting a project to that point is critical to its continued success. Completion of some limited functionality is far more valuable to your customer than partial completion of 100s of features. Shipping is golden, a lack of shipment is a recipe for disaster.