>>
I'm not an expert in Agile approaches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_management but my concern over an
iterative approach is that it unbal;ances control of the project in
favour of the software expert. That may be fine, but my view is that
its the service provided by the technology that is important, rather
than the technology itself, and the museum folks are best placed to
judge the effectiveness of that end result.
>>
Hmm, There's many flavours of agile approaches but I really wouldn't
agree with it makes the technology more important than the technology
provided by that service or that it "unbal;ances control of the
project in favour of the software expert"
In a waterfall approach its up to the client museum to come up with
an exact specification of what they want despite never having build
one before. All the software person has to do then is build it to the
specification - even if it turns out to be wrong. What almost always
happens is that once the project is built the client realises that
they need alterations to the specification which the contractor then
charges more for. So it's very usual for waterfall projects to go over budget.
With an agile approach you set down you requirement priorities and
ask the contractor to come up with a prototype which fulfils the most
risky ones. You "the museum folks" then get to judge "the
effectiveness" of "the service provided by the technology" of that
prototype. This is particularly useful for things which are difficult
to specify like "easy to use" or "fun". Depending on your judgement
the contractor either then gets another go to refine their effort to
meet your priorities or adds some of the less important features.
Agile approaches are less likely to go over budget but you're more
likely to end up dropping some of the less important features because
you spend the time concentrating on the getting the most important ones right.
What I think may bother Ed about Agile approaches is that it seems
that you need a higher degree of trust in your contractor because you
don't have a final list of specifications to check off at the end. My
experience though is that because you're asking for frequent working
prototypes you get much better feedback on progress than if you're
just expecting the final product to pop out at the end.
Cheers
Joe
Joe Cutting
Digital exhibits and installations
@joe_cutting
www.joecutting.com
35 Hospital Fields Road, York, YO10 4DZ
01904 624681
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