CHALLENGE & SELECTION

I work as a software engineer in big company in Germany and I use so-called Learning Launch

on regular basis to check and verify the ideas before we start to build a feature to cover  requirements. I would like to focus on single case and specific feature which was discussed with our  Belgian customers/stakeholders. During the project we were working on a legacy system which have  been modernized and transformed to a new functional shape using modern technology. We were  not able to completely rewrite the legacy system (of course ) but we decided to somehow reuse  logic and functionalities. There were plenty of ideas how to upgrade and improve one of them. We  picked up one of the ideas and provided a prototype of the solution. In this reflection I will focus on  the insights we gained and the results of the process we followed using Learning Launch as a tool  which we found a proper one to verify our idea.

APPLICATION

Based on the requirements gathered in the previous session and time spent with our

stakeholders we prepared a prototype of solution based on the inspiration taken from the legacy  system. From the development point of view our goal was to have a simple but working solution  which could be easily scaled in the future. After relatively short development time we deployed the  prototype functionality on dedicated test environment (similar to production) and let our  stakeholders play with the new functionality observing their behavior and what they exactly do. We  discovered that the users were very familiar with the functionalities as they literally reused  experience from the legacy system. So this from the usability point of view. We also observed that  some of the places/requirements were not covered – this due to the limitation of time we had for  prototyping. This gave us great input for adjustments and fine tuning but also an official green light  for further development as the users fell very comfortable with the new-old improved functionality.

INSIGHT

The tool which we used to double check our ideas before spending much effort on target

solution gave us early feedback from users/stakeholders and confirmed our assumptions.  Theoretically we could have done the same without spending effort on prototyping as the new  functionality was very similar to the legacy system but we didn’t know how and if the process will be  followed in the new software environment. The tool we used perfectly showed us that we went in a  good direction but also allowed our users to directly give us some feedback and improvements  proposals. We also were able to directly observe how they behave using new piece of software which  was inspiring for us.

APPORACH:

The improvement which could be feasible next time would be to prepare more than one

prototype and organize more than one Learning Launches at the same time focusing on the same  problem/requirement. This would require putting less energy in each prototype but probably  increase the accuracy and selection of the right solution based on the feedback.


CHALLENGE & SELECTION I work as a software engineer in big company in Germany and I use so - called Learning Launch on regular basis to check and verify the ideas before we start to build a feature to cover requirements . I would like to focus on single case and specific feature which was discussed with our Belgian customers / stakeholders . During the project we were working on a legacy system which have been modernized and transformed to a new functional shape using modern technology . We were not able to completely rewrite the legacy system ( of course  ) but we decided to somehow reuse logic and functionalities . There were plenty of ideas how to upgrade and improve one of them . We picked up one of the ideas and provided a prototype of the solution . In this reflection I will focus on the insights we gained and the results of the process we followed using Learning Launch as a tool which we found a proper one to verify our idea . APPLICATION Based on the requirements gathered in the previous session and time spent with our stakeholders we prepared a prototype of solution based on the inspiration taken from the legacy system . From the development point of view our goal was to have a simple but working solution which could be easily scaled in the future . After relatively short development time we deployed the prototype functionality on dedicated test environment ( similar to production ) and let our stakeholders play with the new functionality observing their behavior and what they exactly do . We discovered that the users were very familiar with the functionalities as they literally reused experience from the legacy system . So this from the usability point of view . We also observed that some of the places / requirements were not covered – this due to the limitation of time we had for prototyping . This gave us great input for adjustments and fine tuning but also an official green light for further development as the users fell very comfortable with the new - old improved functionality . INSIGHT The tool which we used to double check our ideas before spending much effort on target solution gave us early feedback from users / stakeholders and confirmed our assumptions . Theoretically we could have done the same without spending effort on prototyping as the new functionality was very similar to the legacy system but we did n’t know how and if the process will be followed in the new software environment . The tool we used perfectly showed us that we went in a good direction but also allowed our users to directly give us some feedback and improvements proposals . We also were able to directly observe how they behave using new piece of software which was inspiring for us . APPORACH : The improvement which could be feasible next time would be to prepare more than one prototype and organize more than one Learning Launches at the same time focusing on the same problem / requirement . This would require putting less energy in each prototype but probably increase the accuracy and selection of the right solution based on the feedback .