Software Prototyping
The Foundation of Successful Development Is Software Discovery
When you’re kicking off a new and exciting software project for your business, it can be tempting to dive right in. But without proper advance research, planning, and legwork, it’s impossible to know whether your team and the development team are aligned, and you’re likely to run into unpleasant (and expensive) surprises and change orders along the way. That’s where discovery and prototyping come in.
The Qbarters Discovery Process: An Overview
Before we write a single line of code, our engineers and business analysts work with your team to identify goals, create requirements, outline technical specifications, and build prototypes of the finished product. That way, we can begin development with the confidence that everyone is on the same page, set up for success in bringing your vision to life.
The discovery process allows us not only to align on goals, but also to create educated, accurate cost estimates and RFP responses, beginning the project with the car and transparency we value at every phase of our relationships with our clients.
Identify goals and user personas
First, we work with your leadership team to understand exactly what your new software needs to accomplish, who will be using it, and how those users can best interact with the system. At this time, we also gather and study any relevant materials or documents relating to the project.
Analyze similar software solutions
While every Qbarters software solution is built with the individual client’s unique needs in mind, we bring a deep and broad perspective of what strategies have worked well for similar end users with similar goals — and, just as importantly, which ones haven’t worked.
Create a prototype
Next, we use all this information we’ve gathered to create a visualization that starts to bring the software solution and its user experience to life for your team. (Read more about prototyping below!)
Iterate based on feedback
Once we’ve nailed down the target result, its requirements, and its technical specifications, we create the action plan that shows clients what we plan to achieve at every phase of the project.
Benefits of Software Project Prototyping
Even once your team and ours have worked together to outline the key goals and features of the new software system, it can be difficult for your team to visualize the system come to life — that’s not because you haven’t successfully defined what you need, but because your expertise is your business, not its software.
So, to mitigate the risk of revealing a finished product only to have you discover it isn’t what you wanted, we use prototyping as a gentle step from the realm of abstract requirements into a more concrete picture of how your software will look, feel, and work. The process is like dipping a toe in the water before diving in.
Benefits of Software Project Prototyping
Even once your team and ours have worked together to outline the key goals and features of the new software system, it can be difficult for your team to visualize the system come to life — that’s not because you haven’t successfully defined what you need, but because your expertise is your business, not its software.
So, to mitigate the risk of revealing a finished product only to have you discover it isn’t what you wanted, we use prototyping as a gentle step from the realm of abstract requirements into a more concrete picture of how your software will look, feel, and work. The process is like dipping a toe in the water before diving in.
UI Prototyping
A good software requirements document doesn’t describe the user experience. It’s goal is to address the “whats” and not the “hows.” So to show you how we envision the user interface to look and feel, we create a static visualization. This mockup isn’t as polished or detailed as the final product will be, and it’s very easy to modify as needed, but it captures the essence of how the system will do what it does.
Proof of Concept Application
The POC has the same goal as the UI prototype, but in practice, it’s very different. Rather than a set of static drawings, a POC is a very minimal version of the software application, allowing you and your team to test out the core technology and key features. This is particularly useful for projects that require bleeding-edge technologies such as AI or augmented reality, or for ideas for which the technology might not yet exist. In these cases, it’s much better to run a feasibility analysis to test the capabilities rather than jump in headfirst with time and resources only to find that a piece of the vision is unrealistic.