[Sigia-l] Open-source IA tool in the making

[Eric Romanik]

I've been using iRise (a simulation/prototyping tool) for over 3 years -- to
a large degree it can and does eliminate the need for paper documentation.
You can attach notes and requirements to the prototype, which can be viewed
online or exported alongside the working prototype. But as a means of
communicating requirements to a development team, the simulation itself is
very effective, because it can be highly functional, high fidelity (if
appropriate), and data-driven. 

The tool is very visual and highly flexible, so it's ideal for rapid
iterative development. I've gone through several iterations of reviews and
usability testing within a few weeks, and ended up with a very robust
prototype. It does not produce a working application or usable code, but it
does eliminate ambiguity and guesswork, and it allows the app def and design
work to be done right up front, before development starts. 

I have run into the problem mentioned earlier in this thread, where
stakeholders will see a high-fidelity, functional prototype and say, "Great
-- launch it!", but you just have to reset expectations -- sure, there might
be a minor let-down at first, but the good news is that when the app or
website finally does launch, the stakeholders get exactly what they had
approved.

The only downside is that it's not cheap, but for large projects it can save
many times its cost in rework during development, and the usability of the
end product is improved immeasurably. 

-- Eric

>------------------------------
>
>Message: 6
>Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:46:20 +0000
>From: "Stewart Dean" <stew8dean at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Open-source IA tool in the making
>To: peter at poorbuthappy.com
>Cc: sigia-l at asis.org, donna at maadmob.net
>Message-ID: <BAY114-F166817B4AAA8DC96E98F54ECE10 at phx.gbl>
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
>Hi,
>
>All I'm thinking about at the moment, from my view, is drawing up 
>requirements for what this needs to do. Documentation appears to be one of 
>them.  I saw this not as a simulation/prototyping tool - althought it would

>do that - but as a means of also generating the final project to some 
>degree. We create documentation so it can be handed over to an 
>implimentation teams and also be signed off by stake holds - if we remove 
>the need for the paper we can have the information we create baked into the

>final implimentation, rather than it be translated one or more times, make 
>projects faster, enable us to error check as we go and also test out ideas 
>much much sooner.
> 
>Flexibility is very important, and we all work in different ways, that's
>why 
>I saw it as a series of apps that you can plug in the way you work into at 
>several stages. Some won't want to let go of visio - that's cool - provide
>a 
>way to talk to this framework using visio. I envisage a visio killing 
>application based either on flash or ajax that is an IA tool that then
>feeds 
>into a chain that leads to the final project.
>
>Stewart Dean