Use visualization for Risk Mitigation

One of the areas we’ve seen visualization used at OneSpring is on Risk Mitigation. Companies are using this approach and technology to rapidly and quickly visualize ideas, concepts, and applications very early in the life-cycle and then taking the visualization and market testing it.

We’ve done this internally to test product ideas quickly and to reduce the risk of developing the wrong thing, or developing something no one wants or needs. Companies now have the ability to quickly test drive their ideas without spending too much time and money upfront.

Market testing your idea can be done very easily by giving users access to your visualization, or by walking them through it and eliciting feedback. This is a very cost effective way to drive value up and risk down.

The key is to keep your visualization lightweight and streamlined so the concept comes through. The visualization doesn’t have to have all the bells and whistles to be effective. We call this a “Low Fidelity” visualization. As long as you can get your concept across, you’ve achieved the goal.

About the author: Jason Moccia is the President, COO, and Co-founder of OneSpring. Jason has over 14 years of experience in the software development field. In addition to operating as President and COO, he also runs the company’s Federal side of the business. His philosophy of doing one thing better than any other company emanates throughout OneSpring’s core strategy. Jason has worked with numerous Fortune 1000 companies including but not limited to Ernst & Young, General Electric, SAIC, Florida Power & Light, InterContinental Hotels, Deloitte, and SunTrust.

The problem with upfront requirements

Prototyping and visualization technology is starting to improve the way companies define and build software applications. However, requirements management and documentation of those requirements is still antiquated. Most tools on the market are outdated and cumbersome to use. 83% of companies still rely on Microsoft Word and Excel to communicate requirements. OneSpring has worked on over 50 projects ranging from small $20K projects to over $2 million dollar requirements definition projects and has seen first hand what works and does not work.

Most companies follow a documentation centric path to defining software applications where a lot of time is spent writing out text-based requirements. In 2005 we discovered a disconnect exists between what a client said they wanted and what they actually received. We call this the Clarity Curve.

The Clarity Curve depicts the understanding stakeholders and users gain as they start seeing their software project come to life. The problem with this model is that there is a very high cost associated with it. In most cases, once the stakeholder sees what is being developed they typically want to make changes. Changing developed software is 100 times more expensive than catching changes upfront in the lifecycle before code has been written. This is the value proposition we have been successfully selling. Our goal is to create software that allows users to rapidly define, organize, and distribute better and more accurate requirements thus allowing companies to build the right software the first time.

The below illustration shows a traditional software development lifecycle. Notice the increase in understanding at the end of the cycle. It is commonly said that stakeholders and users don’t really know what they want until they can see and interact with it. This holds true for software development as it does for most products.

So how do you improve the Clarity Curve?

The goal is to shift stakeholder and user understanding to the beginning of the elicitation phase. By building visual models, visualizations, and rapidly documenting requirements, you can start to shift the curve to the left. The illustration below depicts what we always try to achieve on projects. This will help you reduce cost, increase clarity, and produce better and more usable software. Use visual representations of your requirements to improve understanding and consensus among your stakeholders.

About the author: Jason Moccia is the President, COO, and Co-founder of OneSpring. Jason has over 14 years of experience in the software development field. In addition to operating as President and COO, he also runs the company’s Federal side of the business. His philosophy of doing one thing better than any other company emanates throughout OneSpring’s core strategy. Jason has worked with numerous Fortune 1000 companies including but not limited to Ernst & Young, General Electric, SAIC, Florida Power & Light, InterContinental Hotels, Deloitte, and SunTrust.

Quick Tip: Online collaboration during JAM sessions, via iPad

I just got an iPad and I’m facilitating my first JAM with it. I’m challenging myself to see if I can get through 4 days without opening my laptop in the session! Day 2 is complete, and so far, so good!

It’s not that I haven’t had to share ideas visually, however. We have stakeholders in the room (viewing projected images) as well as remote (via WebEx).

I purchased Autodesk’s SketchBook Pro. Because my iPad is a wifi model, not 3g, I needed to be connected to the wireless network to make this work. At a few points in the discussion where we needed something visual that could not be easily reproduced in iRise, I was able to quickly sketch out a concept with my fingers on the ipad (sort of like finger painting!), save the image and send it to Kay, who then opened it for the JAM participants to see.

It keeps with our philosophy of visual communication and provided a good workaround in an instance where iRise wasn’t an appropriate tool.

OneSpring Secures Joint Application Modeling® Trademark Registration

OneSpring LLC, the authority on software requirements definition, today announced it has received trademark registration certificates from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for Joint Application Modeling®, its novel approach to defining software projects.

“The fundamental problem with gathering and documenting business requirements for software is the clarity problem,” said Scott McDowell, Managing Partner of OneSpring. “Business users don’t know what they want—or need—until they can see it and interact with it. Joint Application Modeling allows users to experience their project vision right from the start.”
 
During a Joint Application Modeling session, stakeholders watch their software requirements come to life. They experience the software before the development team writes a single line of code. At the end of the JAM Session® the participants share a common vision that can’t be achieved using traditional methods.

Joint Application Modeling® has been employed on a wide range of projects from mainframe interfaces to mobile applications for clients that include Fortune 500 companies and large federal government agencies. OneSpring’s unique approach combines specialized disciplines and visualization techniques in real-time sessions to accelerate the common understanding of all aspects of a project, from its purpose to its deliverables.

Webinar: The Visualization Maturity Model

There is more to visualization than just the tools (iRise, Axure, etc.). Your organization’s process and people have to be working optimally to get the most out of them. During this webinar, we’ll discuss the three levels of visualization maturity and how you can get the most from visualization. We’ll also show you how your organization can gain early requirements clarity as well as save time, money and be more innovative.

Slides

Webinar: What Is Visualization?

Curious about project visualization – AKA “simulation” or “rapid prototyping”? Learn how OneSpring is helping Fortune 500 companies and government agencies use visualization on projects that span mainframe modernization to cutting edge mobile applications and everything in between.

Download the Slides