Reflection - Visualization

1. Challenge

I am a Solution Architect for Business Intelligence projects. My client once told me and my  team to build a Management Reporting system for their organization. The client  organization has many departments and Customer Service Request department was  selected as a pilot project. The client wanted our recommendation on project management  methodology to be adopted and execute the project on their behalf. Earlier we have found a  little participation from client side in spite of being it for their benefit. So this time the  challenges were:

a. Little or no participation from client side  b. Requirements gathering was taking time  c. The project looked risky even at the beginning

2. Selection

We have suggested the client to adopt Agile methodology over traditional Waterfall  approach for Project Management and execute the project with faster and iterative way. For  requirement gathering we decided to use wireframes and data flow diagrams which are  visualization tools used in software development.

3. Application

Requirement Gathering:  We have discovered the participation form client side was less because of all the questions  the software folks ask in a technical way, which makes the session less interesting for the  users. So we changed the approach to a visualization mode. Rather than writing plane text  we started creating wireframes on paper.

System Design:  In case of system design the development team used to gather into a meeting room and we  used to draw the data flow design on the whiteboard. We also divided the requirements into  small modules and tagged a priority with each of them. We divided the team in-line with the  modules and started working.

4. Insight

Using the visualization techniques with the client we made them participate in the project.  They started acting as a ‘true’ stakeholder. After the wireframes are finalized, both the client  and the development team come to the same page and the expectation is set. So the chance  of meeting a surprise at the later stage of the project is negligible.  Using the visualization technique in the form of data flow diagram within the team made all  of us to understand the project and the overall architecture as a whole. This also helped to  keep others’ work in mind when the team and the work was divided into small modules.  Had it been a traditional approach (waterfall model) of project management, the risk of  failure would have been more as there were many uncertain things to resolve and some  risks might have surfaced too late and project might have failed. Next time onwards I will  use it more to make a project successful and reduce the risk.

5. Approach

Next time I’d like to try Learning Launch. As this will help me to access the customer  feedback in a real-time yet controlled environment and it will also help me to understand  the bugs/mistakes/issues in the system in a real-time environment.

