[Sigia-l] How agile is agile?

[Stewart Dean]

Hi David,

A good consultant / contractor should be able to take what exists and make 
use of it. Differnt information architects / user experience designers will 
deliver different deliberables if left to their own devices. To state the 
obvious the deliverables are used to build the project so, to quote a large 
degree, those that are implimenting the project should indicate what they 
need to build the project. There is also a need for deliverables used to 
communicate (a powerpoint presentation is much better at this than a 500 
page report) A good consultant will be experience with taking what is there 
and working with it whilst making requests for things they feel are needed 
to allow them to deliver the best solution.

So in short - it's acceptable to bring someone else in but beware of IAs 
that only have one way of working - they can spend valuble time reformating 
documents without adding anything to the project. No two site maps or 
wireframes (to give an example) are the same, and whilst some are better 
than others I personaly have worked using many different templates, levels 
of details and in different programs. It goes with the territory I feel.

Stewart Dean


>From: "David Talley" <dtalley at awwa.org>
>To: <sigia-l at asis.org>
>Subject: [Sigia-l] How agile is agile?
>Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:06:41 -0700
>
>For my first post here, I'd like to ask for some practical feedback from
>IA and UX consulting types: How willing are you to join a project
>already in progress and give suggestions to improve the current state of
>things, knowing that you could have helped more if you'd been involved
>from the beginning?
>
>We've recently ended a relationship with someone whose expectations
>differed from ours about what constituted work products and how much
>time we as clients were to spend formatting documents in a way that the
>consultant found acceptable. (Bitter? Moi?) It's way too late to start
>over with someone else's idea of the Correct Process and full menu of
>Acceptable Deliverables (each with its price tag attached). But we would
>still like someone new to pass an experienced eye over the screen
>layouts and IA in light of some basic user test results. Is it too much
>to ask a new person to step in after things are already in motion?  Is
>that something you're used to doing, or would it compromise the
>standards of the profession?
>
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