The blog of Kristóf Kovács

What can you learn from a prototype?

I’m having an idea for a Twitter mesh-up. It’s based on the idea that some tweets are worth more than others, and maybe there is a criteria to determine it.
Last week I had one free evening to work a little on this side project, and since it’s mine alone, I’m free to blog about it. [...]

Always show the larger view

When planning a software development, especially if it involves a team, I like to sit down with the client, and together we write a list of the expected features of the software as seen from the user’s perspective. The list has three columns, as recommended in SCRUM best practices, so it’s best done in a spreadsheet, and the columns are written to complete this sentence:

“As a ___(role)___, I ___(need feature)___, because ___(business reason)___.”

Everyone immediately understands the first two. But the third one, it looks like over-engineering. It’s not really necessary, is it? Surely the guy who came up with this form never had a real project on his hands? Who has time for such things?