[clue-talk] L

[Collins Richey]

On 12/17/06, Jed S. Baer <thag at frii.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 12:30:36 -0700
> Collins Richey wrote:
>
> > > But, I can say that the most successful projects I have worked on have
> > > an actual working prototype as the first deliverable.
> >
> > Amen, brother. Among other things, you get user buy-in for the
> > project. They get a chance to say "I like it, but it needs ..." or "No
> > way that will work" BEFORE you have invested man-years in a
> > deliverable that doesn't meet their needs. All too often, a user will
> > request xyz, but when they are shown a prototype of xyz, they will
> > realize that they really wanted abc.
>
> But it's a 2-edged sword. There is (or used to be?) a time-honored rule of
> thumb: prototypes aren't. The scenario being that when the users get the
> prototype, they then want to immediately start having that functionality
> available, and the prototype winds up being the delivered system.

Could be, but that's not all bad. If the prototype is usable
(ineficiancy aside), you've saved man-months/years of effort to get
something useful into their hands. You still have the prototype design
to apply to a more functional system later. That can be a win-win
situation.

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.