Comments on: What My 2 Year Old Taught Me About Software

By: Brandy

Brandy — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:21:25 +0000

Okay just to clarify she does eat more then rice and ravilio! Cheese, grapes, bread, carrots, strawberries, soy beans etc!!!

By: JeppeKM

JeppeKM — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:36:05 +0000

Very insightful and a joy to read!
Specs are important to give the general direction in which to produce for the developer. The client, though, doesn’t necessarily knows what he/she want before he/she sees it.
Both by working iterative, agile and with fast mock-ups it becomes a good basis on which the client and developer can discuss and plan what to do with the rest of the … ravioli- software

By: jquave

jquave — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:15:22 +0000

I’m not sure I agree that prototyping can trump spec documents. In my experience if I show the client a prototype they will complain about all the missing features. Then after I have fixed them all and polished the aesthetics, only then will they say “oh by the way, this isn’t what we wanted at all.” It’s as if they are only willing to evaluate a finished product. I think they lack the foresight to see where the product is heading. Because of this, I think giving a detailed spec actually does more to illuminate that you are on the wrong path. The reason I think is that my specs usually have price tags attached to each line. This forces them to consider if something is needed, unneeded, or just plain wrong.

By: polyGeek

polyGeek — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:24:04 +0000

To me a ‘spec’ and a ‘prototype’ are one in the same. In the majority of situations it’s possible to at least create a semi-functional prototype using the Flex Framework faster than writing out a spec – I’m talking about a UI/UX spec.

Want to prototype a video player with comments and voting? That’s what, a few hours work at most? Then the client gets something they can experiment with. If you want to spend a few more hours work then you can add controls to the prototype to let the client edit it. Simple things like resizing controls, changing colors, etc don’t take much time to build in. I’ve seen clients get a real kick out of stuff like that.

Later on you can even drop that stuff into an admin panel that the client can use to change the design after it’s live. They want to give it a Christmas theme? No prob.

What would be fantastic is if Catalyst is easy enough to use then clients might be able to create their own simple prototypes. I know it’s a long shot but we can hope, can’t we?

By: pooch lover

pooch lover — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:42:37 +0000

Come on give the kid a break, I mean the client.