A few weeks back I represented id8 at the iRise User Group meeting in San Francisco. I was on a panel of four iRise experts discussing topics from the audience during an afternoon session. One particularly lively discussion was about how visualization works with different development methodologies, specifically Agile.
I pointed out how our approach to visualization has a lot in common with Agile principles, and that visualization provides many of the same benefits as Agile development does, and does so more rapidly and without some of the pitfalls that hinder many Agile projects.
Visualization, like Agile, doesn't put requirements documentation at the front end of a project as a separate phase, but rather allows requirements to evolve organically, in an iterative fashion. The difference between iterative visualization and Agile development is that with visualization, the requirements are developed in tandem with a simulation, and with Agile, requirements are developed in parallel with working code.
This point led to a side discussion about how visualization almost makes development methodology irrelevant, and that even old-school waterfall can work quite well when it includes an iterative visualization phase.
Circling back to integrating visualization with Agile, I described an approach that we have used successfully with Agile shops, where we run visualization iterations one step ahead of development sprints -- the visualization serving as a blueprint for the next sprint. At the end of each sprint, the working application can be compared against the visualization, and any need to adjust or compromise due to technical limitations can be addressed immediately. In this way, visualization can accelerate and enhance Agile development, while following up each visualization iteration with a development sprint makes sure the vision is grounded in reality and on track.
After the discussion panel, we were all given a sneak peek at iRise 8, due to be released early next year. Unfortunately there's not much that I can say about it without violating my vow of secrecy, except that it will be way cool! But stay tuned... we'll be sharing details and posting reviews as soon as we are able.
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