In part 2, I explained how we’re breaking down our work into tight, four-day-long iterations, but I didn’t get into what everyone is doing during the cycle.
It goes a little something like this: The design team sketches designs of the software that the development team will build during the following iteration, which will be tested by the consumer insights team during the iteration following that one.
The design team applies insights from testing to new and redesigned sketches, which will be implemented by the development team in a later iteration, which will be tested by the consumer insights team… you get the picture.
Design, develop, test, repeat!
In action it looks like this (slightly modified) schedule of our past three weeks:
| Iteration 4 | Iteration 5 | Iteration 6 | |
| Design | Short form comments Comments by your friends |
Letters to the editor Facebook info Q&A ratings |
User comments and following Comments on Facebook Letters to the editor ratings |
| Develop | Q&A Facebook Connect |
Short form comments Comments by your friends |
Letters to the editor Facebook info Q&A ratings |
| Test | Is Facebook good for them? Articles |
Q&A Facebook Connect |
Short form comments Comments by your friends |
IMG_3605.JPG by nautical2k
The benefits of a small vessel
By working in a tight cycle like this, we’ve been able to very quickly create testable, demoable work each week, while remaining flexible to changes in our feature list.
For example, this past week we’ve learned more about the requirements and terms-of-use for Facebook Connect applications. If we were working with set-in-stone-up-front designs, we’d be scrambling to correct our course. Instead, we’re just tacking as the winds change.
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