Your next project has a 72% chance of failure. Here is how to avoid it.

According to the leading industry analysts, approximately 72% of projects failed in 2010 due to mis-understood requirements and objectives. This number has increased from prior years due the ever-growing complexity of software applications. Even with a plethora of tools to choose from, our industry still hasn’t figured out a way to define and deliver projects successfully – every time. At OneSpring, we believe it’s more about the talent of our people and the approach we take than the tools we employ. As one of my colleagues aptly put it, “just because you have a paint brush in your hands doesn’t make you Monet”. So, what if you could ensure every feature and function of your next software project would be a hit with your end-customer and project stakeholders? This is possible, and it is completely within reach to you and your team – today.

Eliminate failed projects by first rapidly visualizing your project to gain clarity and acceptance before committing time, money and IT resources to building the wrong project. Whether your company is creating a new project from scratch, redesigning an existing project or even adding new features in an enhancement project, ambiguity is the number-one threat to your project failing. While there are a number of software development methodologies and techniques in use today, they still fall short in being able to effectively communicate the requirements of a project clearly. For example, common techniques such as Use-Cases, Sequence Diagrams, UML and even Wireframes that are used today by corporations across every industry still lack the ability for you and your stakeholders to truly interact with and see your requirements in action. In short, your project requirements cannot be fully understood unless they can be experienced. A fully interactive simulation of your requirements gives you, your team and your customer the ability to experience your future state application before it is built. Traditionally, creating a prototype of the product has been an optimal solution for testing, feedback and requirements validation purposes. However, it is typically cost-prohibitive to engage large teams of Information Technology (IT) staff to create code-based prototypes for every project. Previsualization is a modern method for prototyping that typically takes one-third of the time and budget previously spent on prototyping to accomplish with the same beneficial results. In some instances, the savings are even greater.

Previsualization was originally created in the motion picture industry as a means for film makers to quickly and cost-effectively plan each shot of their movie. Using a lower resolution version of the picture, the film’s director and other key players could easily envision each scene and make changes until they had refined it to a perfect scene. Then, once perfectly planned, the crew would produce the high-resolution version for use in the final film. This method proved to be so successful at saving time and production costs that previsualization is required on virtually all films made today. Even those working on the “small screen” of television have begun to use previsualization as a way to cut costs and improve end products.

OneSpring has brought the technique of previsualization to the software industry. Piggy-backing off lessons learned in the entertainment world, OneSpring has developed a unique process that combines low-resolution interactive models with feature-level requirements and traceability into a “movie” that everyone on your team can easily view and understand. Equally important, if changes are needed, then the previsualization of your application can be rapidly updated until the desired results are achieved. This approach provides a highly efficient and effective means of working through multiple iterations until all stakeholders understand, validate and ultimately approve the application’s requirements.

With cost savings typically over 50%, OneSpring has allowed companies to elicit, capture, manage and deliver their application requirements faster and more efficiently, allowing them to better determine customer acceptance of their software application projects before committing to costly development. Previsualization now provides a competitive advantage that can help your company best address your customers’ needs and the goals of your business and ensure success.

Once Upon a Time…

We all know that a picture is supposedly worth 1,000 words.  As an employee at a firm that specializes in visualization, I’ve seen first-hand how modeling systems with stakeholders can build clarity, reduce errors, and increase the likelihood that the systems that ultimately get built are those the stakeholders thought they had described.  This week, though, I’ve been reminded that sometimes the thing worth 1,000 words is – well – 1,000 words.

My teammates and I are finishing up the pre-visualization phase of a major project (if you’re wondering what “pre-visualization” is, click here to read Robert Grashuis’s excellent description).  Over the past six months, we’ve helped our client model nearly 400 workflows for a system that will serve hundreds of thousands of users.  On Friday, we will deliver a rudimentary, working model of the system along with several hundreds of pages in written documentation.

But how do you make it easy to “consume” such a large system?  I would suggest leveraging one of the oldest forms of human communication – storytelling.  Stories hook us.  We remember them.  We understand them.  We read them.  And, in an age where the average executive is tasked with reading (or skimming) hundreds of pages daily, that is no small statement.

What do I mean by stories?  Well, let’s start with what I don’t mean.  I am not advocating the two- to three-sentence “user stories” the term probably conjures up for many of you.  Nor am I talking about their more technical brother, the Use Case.  These may have their place in system design/development, and several good articles have been written about the pros and cons of each (for some of the best, I suggest you check out this list of articles from the Practical Analyst).

The user stories I’d like to advocate are actual stories.  They follow fictional (but realistic) users as those users interact with the system over time.  They are populated by characters with names, histories, and lives away from their computers.  You don’t have to write a novel, but we should get enough background to make the stories compelling, memorable, and easy for someone with no knowledge of the system to understand.  For each story, I create a corresponding “map” that tells the reader how to drive through the model and take the same actions within the system that the stories’ characters take.

Why “waste” time writing these fictional accounts?  This type of user story can serve several functions when used as a bridge between pre-visualization and the fully visualized system.  Stories can: 

• Help identify gaps in the model early

Because you have to trace each action taken in the story to its location in the model, writing stories can help you find holes earlier than you may otherwise notice them.  You’ll describe how a character reads an email sent to her through the system, and you’ll realize, “Oops!  We included a workflow for WRITING an email, but we forgot to include the flow for VIEWING one.”

• Validate the analysts’ understanding of business processes

Let’s face it – we’re analysts, not SMEs.  The next time you THINK you understand how a process works in an organization, try writing a story about it.  You may find it humbling.  But, if you discover early where you’re confused about the organization’s workflow processes (Hmm- would it be the paralegal that does that?  The clerk?), you can make sure to clarify those potential problem points early.

• Demonstrate how multiple users interact with the system as a result of the same event

The great thing about user stories that are actual stories is that they can have multiple characters.  Several different users may have to interact with the system before X change can occur.  Narratives provide an easy way to describe all of these interactions in a fluid, cohesive manner.

• Create a readily accessible way to communicate what the model does

If you’re trying to communicate a system’s features to its requirements team, this probably won’t be a problem.  But what about to others in the entity?  To outsiders – potential clients, investors, partners?  Anyone can understand a well-written story, regardless of their baseline knowledge level (or complete lack thereof!).

• Provide a roadmap for particularly large, unwieldy models

In my mind, this is one of the most compelling reasons to write fully mapped user stories.  In the project I mentioned above, for example, we are delivering a model with nearly 400 unique scenarios.  A user could start at the top of the list and click through each, but that would give the user very little context.  S/he may (quite understandably) have a hard time keeping track of what s/he is looking at.  The mapped stories allow a user to ground his or her navigation in realistic narratives about which scenarios users would actually click through, in what order, and for what purpose.

• Breathe life into the purpose of the system 

Let’s face it:  when we can sink our teeth into a name, a history, a plot – even if it’s fictional and very basic – we’re more likely to remember what we’ve read.  Think of art.  It could be my lack of culture, but I find modern art much less satisfying than art that has an identifiable subject matter.  I am drawn to the story implicit in Renoir’s La Lecture.  What are those girls reading so intently?  It’s hard to see the Mona Lisa without wondering what she’s smiling about.  A Jackson Pollock, while interesting, lacks the human interest factor that so intrigues many of us.  So, too, for systems.  When the business stakeholders can picture “Flight Attendant Nicole” or “Architecture Student Keith” instead of faceless users, they’ll be more likely to remember why they’re building the system to begin with.

So, the next time you deliver a “picture” of a system to a client, why not try accompanying it with 1,000 words?

What is Previsualization?

Clarity at the Speed of Thought

We understand that trying to build the very best, most successful software application using traditional software requirements methodologies can be a challenging adventure. Using Previsualization from OneSpring, you can experience the success of your project, before you even start it.

Previsualization is a collaborative process that generates preliminary versions of application features, functionality and process flows in a low-resolution format. This approach enables the project stakeholders to more effectively communicate a shared vision and understanding of a project through visual exploration.

NEW VIDEO:

Previs Documentary – Part 1 from Previsualization Society on Vimeo.

Previsualization works in a low-resolution format as seen on the left
and gradually matures to a high-resolution format once the key
components have been agreed upon by the stakeholders

Previsualization or previs further accelerates the benefits of visualization by rapidly bringing clarity and understanding to a project at the foundational stages of definition. As such, the cost and time savings are very significant to the overall planning, management and definition of any project.

Previsualization is widely recognized and used today in the motion picture industry to help facilitate and and accelerate communications in the process of creating multi-million dollar feature films.

Previs Documentary – Part 1 from Previsualization Society on Vimeo.

Watch the movie above to learn how previs helps the motion picture
industry. The same benefits of enhanced communication are also
realized in the software design and definition industry.

With over a year of successful usage on a variety of projects, we have placed previsualization as the baseline of our widely recognized Stream Process™.

Previsualization now plays a pivotal role in delivering unparalleled value to our customers. We believe previs will become equally significant to our highly successful JAM Session® for its ability to bring clarity to complex enterprise projects.

At its most basic level, previsualization is an enhanced process for rapidly and effectively bounding the parameters of an application definition project.

At an advanced level, it is the ability to explore creative ideas, plan technical solutions, and communicate a shared vision without incurring the costs and timeframes normally associated within a traditional requirements gathering and management life cycles.

Previsualization is comprised of these essential ingredients:

• Working in a low-resolution format
• Mapping the experience via scenario storyboards
• Rapid collaboration with real-time feedback loops

To learn more about previsualization at OneSpring and how this process can benefit your organization, please contact us at PreVis@OneSpring.net.