Conceptual understanding in development

Improving conceptual understanding in development

OR

Would you make assumptions about a dragon?

presented by Sebastian Helzle

Who am I?1990 Pen & Paper

1996 Geocities

2005 TYPO3

2007 Freelancer

2013 Neos CMS

2015 CSM

Love hiking, mountains and baking

Chapters

I. Dungeons & Dragons & Conceptual understanding

II. A light through the fog of requirements

III. Evade traps with agile methods

IV. Gain experience and grow your strengths

V. Slay the dragon of Golive and retrieve it’s treasures

Why is conceptual understanding important?

Our web projects are not

Just pieces of code

Fluffy mythical creatures

COMPLEXWebsites and apps are

Idea & final resultCan look similar but the result might behave unexpected

So, why are they complex?

People working together

Team:

„A group of people with individual views on the same(?) thing“

Technology

Dependencies

Continuous delivery

Performance

Scalability

Next: The real complexity

People must actually be able to use your product!

The connection to Pen & Paper games

Parts of a Pen & Paper game

Game master (Storyteller, Visionary, PO)

2-6 Adventurers (Different strengths and personalities)

Space where everyone sits together

Books describing the rules of the game

Motivation

Common goal

Sounds like a project

How people play

I. Game master describes the situation

II. Everyone synchronizes their view

III. Player do actions

IV. Game master explains results according to the story and the rules

V. Players evaluate result and adapt

VI. Start again from step I.

Sounds like a Sprint

II. The fog of requirements

From far a forest might look very nice

It will lead you to your goal and reveal the dragon

Beware: There is always something lurking there!

Shifting priorities

Described workflows don’t fit anymore

External dependencies

Demanding stakeholders

Technical debts

What makes a product usable?

Customised solutions

Well thought out workflows

Good performance

Clients are used to bad solutions

And sometimes ask for more of it

III. Evade traps with agile methods

Daily stand-up

Synchronize

ReviewsDo internal reviews and user testing

Let developers present their work

Invite the client

Check for dents in your armors

Keep some slack in your planning

Improvements need time too

Sharpen your weapons

Don’t kill ideas with overcomplicated processes

A process can be bent

Frameworks adapted

Refresh a projects vision regularly

Sometimes the trees block your view on the dragon

IV. Gain experience and grow your strengths

Retrospectives

Talk about your processes

Practise communication

Grow as a team

Miscommunication is expensive

Every change can have undesired effects

Performance degradation

Usability

Stability issues

Relationship with the client

There are already some solutions

Automated testing (stability & performance)

A/B testing for user experience

Sadly, no automatic tests for editors efficiency or clients happiness :(

Many developers don’t know what clients are doing

Ignorance?I don’t think so

(maybe sometimes)

Fostering project ownership

EmpathyClient has bad experience?

Feel the urge to improve it

Find sustainable solutions

Work with the client

Try to understand the client

Get to know the client (he’s not the dragon)

As a developer you canSee tasks as challenge

Try to see your work from a different point of view

Involve in shaping a project

Defend your ideas and concepts

Teach others

Cooperate & ask for help

Write down or draw what you know

Get coaching

Enable developers

Let coaches coach, not do the work

Help developers not to depend on coaches

V. Slay the dragon of Golive and retrieve it’s treasures

Things might be different than expected

Is the dragon hungry?

Did he have enough sleep?

Is he unhappy?

Assumptions might be deadly!

Thank you!

Questions?

More

🐦 @sebobo

✉ [email protected]

📖 http://www.mind-the-seb.de