Development Process

Web Applications have been around for years, what makes RIAs any different?

The answer is the User Experience. At Ariaware we do one thing: Architect Rich Internet Experiences. Although it's our tagline and may appear to be blatant marketing speak, it's not. Our focus in RIA development is usability and the user experience. It is the user experience that sets RIAs apart from existing web applications and the usability of an RIA, just like the usability of any application, will ultimately determine end user acceptance or rejection of the product.

In software development there is a worrying statistic: According to the Chaos report (the Standish Group, 1995), over 75% of all IT projects fail. Failure can come in the form of user rejection or schedule and budget overruns or both.

Over the years, the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has developed guidelines for User-Centered Product Development. In tandem, progressive software engineers have flocked under the banner of the Agile manifesto and Agile development methodologies such as eXtreme Programming (XP). In 2004, Aral Balkan presented a session at the CF-Europe conference in London wherein he highlighted our development methodology at Ariaware: User-Centered Agile Product Development (UCAPD). As someone who has been using a computer for over 19 years and suffers from Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI), Aral has a very personal interest in making sure that applications are usable and ergonomic and believes that all software manufacturers should be held accountable for the ergonomics of their software.

Although over 75% of all IT projects fail, the secret to a software project that does not fail is very simple: Know your users, listen to your users and keep listening to your users as you develop. XP states that the customer should be a member of the team. Most times the customer and the user will not be the same person. In these cases, UCAPD states that both the customer and the user should be part of the team. In fact, this is a conclusion reached by many XP practitioners in real-life, and is even outlined in the excellent book eXtreme Programming in Action: Practical Experiences from Real World Projects (Lippert, Roock & Wolf). The customer is responsible for handling the business domain but it is the user who has ultimate say in whether or not an application is usable.

How we can help

We can work with you to help you implement User-Centered Agile Product Development at your workplace or offer you training in its core elements, eXtreme Programming (XP) and User Centered Product Development. We can also consult with you to analyze your current processes and implement a migration path towards a more agile, user-centered development process for your team or company.

Contact us today to discuss your options and let's work together to lower your development risk.