Wk 4 discussion cmgt 555 (requires my post answer and 3 responses for

Discussion Topic

Resource: Pluralsight: UX-based Software Design in the Week 4 – Required Learning Activities folder

Waterfall projects may dictate a different approach and rigor surrounding design when compared to Agile.

Consider the phases associated with both waterfall and Agile. How you would approach design for a new project, based off each of these SDLC approaches? Consider User Interface and Pattern Based design approaches. Provide an example of a project (either from your experience or one you read about) and explain what documents you would produce, why, and how that would affect future phases of the project.

Post your answers to the discussion forum.

Respond to at least three of your peers. In your response, consider providing another example of a similar project.

Peer 1

• When talking about waterfall SDLC, The waterfall model emphasizes that a logical progression of steps be taken throughout the software development life cycle, much like the cascading steps down an incremental waterfall. While the popularity of the waterfall model has waned over recent years in favor of more agile methodologies, the logical nature of the sequential process used in the waterfall method cannot be denied, and it remains a common design process in the industry.
• When talking about agile SDLC, The Agile approach embraces the constant changes that occur in the development of technology – allowing teams to break the lengthy requirements, build, and test phases down into smaller segments, ultimately delivering working software quickly and more frequently.

For example, Ford Motor Company is in the business of designing and assembling cars. Each model that Ford designs and produces can be considered a project. The models differ from each other in their features and are marketed to people with various needs. So they would need to have in place documents like if the project will be Formally solicited, Informally solicited , Unsolicited, Continuation, Renewal, Supplemental. With this in place that’s how you know the business will be successful.

Peer 2

In a waterfall project, the design stage is usually the second stage which is followed by test with no going back to the design until the all stages are done. The designing is straightforward. Agile on the other hand tests on every stage and allows you to repeat each stage until its right. The user has frequent and early opportunities to see the work being delivered, and to make decisions and changes throughout the development project. I would pick the agile method for my project because development is often more user-focused, a result of more and frequent direction from the user. It allows you to make changes right away before finishing the product. Some documents required during design in an agile method would be a high level design concept with a sketch of key ideas.

Peer 3

Waterfall: The waterfall method requires that the bulk of the development for software is performed before the customer gets the chance to test it, which could potentially cause issues if the requirements gathered were incomplete or simply not stated. The approach to design would require the gathering of requirements in the analysis/requirements phase, and analyzing these requirements to determine the layout of the interface. Documents that would be created for this phase would be the problem vision document, which would specify the problem the software is trying to solve, business goals and risk and end-user description, as well as the requirements document that would outline all business requirements, functional and non-functional.

Agile: The agile method uses an iterative approach to development, delivering features through each “sprint” that compliments or modifies current features, and the application is usually functional very early in the development. If requirements are known initially, an artifact called the product backlog will aggregate these requirements into one place, allowing the planning and developing of the project to commence. If only some of the requirements are known initially, they will be added to the product backlog. At the end of each sprint, the product backlog can be updated as new requirements are produced by the customer. A product roadmap, which is document that shows high level functionality of the end product, and a release plan, which sets a rough release date, can also be created depending on the level of known requirements.

UX Design: UX Design utilizes a top-down approach, so the interface is generally designed first, then the functionality behinds the scenes is made to fit the interface. A typical artifact that is produced from UX Design is a UX Wireframe, which is a mock-up of the proposed functionality the interface would exhibit in production.