[Sigia-l] Why does not real IA tool exist? was Re: Where's the reality?

[Scott McDowell]

Hey Stew,

There are a great number of tools on the market for producing visual IA
deliverables such as wireframes/prototypes and the best of the breed which
produce fully interactive simulations.  The problem is that the best of them
are being marketed towards the Business Analysis community due to the sheer
size of the BA community.  The tools range from the high-end being
iRise  <http://www.irise.com/product/studio.shtml>and
the low-end being LucidSpec <http://www.elegancetech.com/LS.aspx>.  In the
middle falls tools like Axure's RP PRO 4 <http://www.axure.com/>, Serena's
Composer <http://www.serena.com/Products/composer/Home.asp> and Sofea's
Profesy <http://www.sofeainc.com/product_overview.htm>.  I've used all of
these over the past 18 months and like all emerging markets some products
greatly excel over others.  iRise has proven to be the leader in the
simulation space and I can assure you with proper implementation it far
exceeds the rest of the pack.  If you are interested in learning more about
these products feel free to email me as I have written numerous articles on
the topic.  Here is one such article, How Simulation is changing the IT
landscape <http://www.onespring.net/articles-a1.html>.

Scott


On 3/11/06, Stewart Dean <stew8dean at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >From: "Leisa Reichelt" <leisa.reichelt at gmail.com>
> >To: sigia-l at asis.org
> >Subject: Re: Where's the reality? was, Re: [Sigia-l] Off Topic Posts
> >Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 20:03:10 +1100
> >
> > > I think their attempt to apply their working model to different
> projects
> >is
> > >deeply flawed as heir approach is good at produce a certain type of
> >project.
> > > You can't expect a rock and roll band to produce good swing music.
> >
> >At the risk of starting to sound like a 37 Signals groupie, which I'm
> not,
> >I do have to say that if you're read their ebook Getting Real you'll
> >see that they make this exact same qualification throughout the
> >document.
> >
> >I don't think *they* are trying to say that their methodology should
> >be adopted everywhere, but that there are some types of project where
> >people could benefit from applying it.
>
> My mistake, I iimplied that from elsewhere. In that case I'm not
> disagreeing
> with the ebook.
>
> >And I think that its definitely a good time for us to re-evaluate our
> >own methodologies and make sure they're still best practice.
>
> Thing about best practice is it's never the same practice twice. I've
> never
> worked on two projects that use the same methodology, for good reason I
> feel.
>
> >For example... I'm toying with the idea of ditching Visio and learning
> >how to output good quality HTML templates that developers might be
> >able to re-use and that clients could physically play with (rather
> >than Visio, which I currently use and which is a pain for everyone
> >involved IMHO)
>
> You're not alone. I'd love to do my wireframe work directly into the site
> creation applicaiton, instead of putting my rules, components, flows down
> onto paper instead feed them into an application that allows me quickly to
> cover all error cases, for example.
>
> At the moment there exists no real IA tools and there is a huge gapping
> hole
> there for someone to fill. I personlay would love to see Adobe have a go
> at
> this as they do tools on either side of this gap.
>
> >I suspect that I might be veering off into another thread for another
> >list... and given recent events and my newbie status, I'll leave it at
> >that for now!
>
> No you've hit upon my biggest problem with IA at the moment - there
> currently exists no real IA tool. Unless, of course, others know
> differently.
>
> Stew Dean
>
>
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--
Scott McDowell