Monday, April 28, 2008

Did You Hear About The Three Blind, The Elephant And The Systems Analyst?

If this story does not summarize the average relationship between analysts and end-users then I& 39;ll turn in my Palm Pilot!

One day, three blind men encountered an elephant.

Upon hit the tail of the elephant & 39;, the first blind & 39; s exclame " I said, an elephant is just like a rope. "

The second blind, bumping elephants , Said: " No sir, you& 39;re wrong. An elephant is just like a wall. "

Then the third, after entering the & 39; elephant& 39;s trunk, said " You are both wrong. L & 39; elephant is just like a snake! "

Yes, everything is a matter of perspective. And & 39; is that simple word: perspective that creates one of the biggest disconnects between analysts and users that & 39; they try to serve.

The elephant in the room in this case is that called " barrier l & 39; " abstraction. The barrier represents the difference between the way users see a software development project and how the & 39; analyst to see it.

Users are inherently modal. They see software from the viewpoint of data elements that & 39; they are required to collect and take to their work. They see the elephant & 39; d & 39; be represented by the sign " screens " data that collects the information is & 39; or & 39; poster.

Most users care very little about databases and tables, properties and procedures, functions or compilers. They really care about c & 39; is to see a visual representation of screens that & 39; they will meet and the & 39; use once the software is developed and deployed.

So, why fight against the & 39; town hall?

Once requirements have been collected, why not take the easy road and test your understanding of the needs of users by presenting them with the only thing that & 39; they are the best? A visual representation system that takes each case d & 39; use of & 39; a manner that best suits the real environment & 39; that & 39; user will be working in.

& quot; Uh, no duh. We already do so. "

Well good for you. If c & 39; is the case, then you already understand how to provide an overall view of this elephant. Thus, answer these two questions for me:

1. How l & 39; work effort you spend on creating these screens?

2. And how much more accurate could be your presentation if you were actually using a tool specifically designed to take your user name & 39; "ah ha" in the shortest time possible?

Let me give you a little & 39; help answer these questions.

If you actually are already providing visual design model of your proposed system, chances are good that you are either manually create these drawings, or you use a complex program that requires too much before entering d & 39; & 39; that it is ready to handle these drawings for you.

If n & 39; you are not already providing visual design model of your proposed system, then chances are it is due either to the fact that not one of your team knows how to draw, or you & 39; n did not have time, patience, or maybe l & 39; money needed to use these expensive and complicated tools documentation.

Here is the solution to all these problems. It & 39; called MockupScreens. A descriptive name for a tool that is the faster, easier and less costly to break through the barrier d & 39; abstraction by presenting a cohesion " elephant " that all users instantly be able to see in the context that most matches their expectations.

It consensus " ah ha "moment-generator that is easy to use and inexpensive to own. Even better, if it is good to reduce the project risks that your PM will probably reach right into his own pocket and buy & 39; themselves for you!

The MockupScreens software is easy to understand and use because it is designed to work the same way that & 39; outline on paper screens. MockUpScreens reduces the chances of distracting your users with unnecessary details while keeping in black and white. Thus, everyone that & 39; attention focuses on the areas and data elements and not color d & 39; screen.

You have the opportunity to add comments & 39;, icons, questions and & 39; other elements in the drawings and then either hiding when you create users of the drawings, or l & 39; displaying everything for everybody to see.

MockUpScreens can generate slide shows that & 39; s display each screen in the same order that they appear & 39; when the system is online.

You may make changes to & 39; screen in response to the seizure of the & 39; user, during the presentation if you want, then view these changes, just in front of their eyes. MockUpScreens helps to increase your professional image, and users " level of confidence in you and your team, without additional cost.

The best part is that you did not need & 39; d & 39; programming or artistic skills to extract every ounce of power over MockUpScreens. You just run MockupScreens and & 39; intuitive interface takes you from there.

There are keyboard shortcuts for every action, and that & 39; contextual help anywhere you want & 39; that it is.

Built features, such as automatic scaling of & 39; screen when new elements are added, free to concentrate on functionality instead of & 39; graphical interface.

Actual tests with a brand new MockUpScreens users showed that the average inexperienced users was able to draw 5 screens in 10 minutes! It & 39; will not get any easier than that. You can shave even more time out of the cycle, if you look the same screens, thanks to the screen & 39; function of cloning.

Look, your job is hard enough without having to carry out multi-user meetings to explain just what & 39; is like an elephant. Find out how the user & 39; d & 39; obtain & 39; approval of your design faster and easier than ever to take a minute to visit http://www.MockUpScreens.com. You can even download a fully-functional 30-day demonstration copy of MockUpScreens so you can see how you quickly and easily you can develop models d & 39; screen even if you can not draw a stick figure on a napkin cocktail.



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