I beginning to get a little tired of them. They're queueing up in front of me, looking straight at me as I try to avoid their gaze. They constantly grumble at me to pay them attention, to listen to them mindlessly moan on and on about pointless detail.
The business requirement documents are always there.
But I've found a new way to get excited. It's a way that cuts through the red tape, communicates clearly to all types of stakeholders, and builds business requirements on the fly.
Its of course the working prototype. A small interactive demo of your idea. That shows people how it can work.
It might be a small mobile app, or a process workflow, or a before and after of a call centre agent interaction. It might be a designed brochure, or a credit card mockup, or a branch design.
It might cost $5k, or $10k or even $50k. But I guarantee it will get pay back.
Start small, build a small prototype, prove it can be done, then build up from there.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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3 comments:
Totally agree with this - prototyping is a fantastic method, and can be used in many areas. For example, I have used prototypes successfully to develop new service delivery models in retail banking. It takes a lot of effort, but gives you something that has been roadtested before you hit the pilot stage. You have some idea what the executional issues will be, the people issues, etc.
Why don't people prototype more -- in your experience?
The prototype is a valid process for the development of ideas. But, we have all seen the prototypes that end up in the "marketplace" and either cause reputation damage or see the idea poached by another. Therefore, the prototype still needs to be managed by the organisation. And unfortunately at some point of time the "prototyper" is going to depart your hallowed shores, therefore getting them to document what they prototyped is a must.
To me, that then becomes the business document and can be used to productionise and mass produce your prototype.
And just like everything, you are making a risk based decision when you prototype, therefore to prototype your entire general ledger or core systems may not be the greatest idea, particularly if they cross multiple parts of the organisation.
But each individual/organisation to their own I say - just make a good, balanced risk based decision (and please, use historical facts as the basis of your decision).
Prototyping takes effort and collaboration, but it is a great way to think about the outcome of the application for the end-user and for the business alike.
It is generally cheap and can save the business huge amounts of effort in fixing broken interfaces. But the real benefit of this is that you get it right the first time. Rather than what happens most of the time when something is launched that isn't optimal and get's left 'as-is' because it's too hard to fix.
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