The Problem with Misaligned Expectations
Working around misunderstandings might sound like a simple annoyance, but it has wider consequences for developers. Features that don’t do what the client needs have to be reworked, and new ones get added last minute. Such a stressful experience damages the client-developer relationship. Clients are less likely to use the same company again, and the developer may even have trouble winning new contracts. The consequences go beyond budget overruns and damaged reputations. In 40% of bug tickets developers find that the documentation isn’t clear enough to help resolve the issue. That adds to the time - and expense - of maintenance.Contextual Development Philosophies
A well-designed development workflow helps get all stakeholders on the same page. It enables developers to hit requirements better, assess performance more accurately, and produce solid documentation that results in more efficient maintenance. Here are some of the most effective methods in use today:Example Mapping
Example mapping is a method of guiding a conversation to create a shared understanding among stakeholders. It’s also known as “Three Amigos sessions”, which refers to the primary perspectives used to examine an increment of work before, during, and after development:- Business: What problem are we trying to solve?
- Development: How might we build a solution to solve that problem?
- Testing: What could possibly happen and how would we handle that?
Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD)
ATDD emphasizes communication between testers, developers, and product owners, bringing the product owner into the test design process before any coding is done. Tests are phrased in business-specific terms instead of engineer jargon. Plain-speech feedback comes quickly and is easy to incorporate going forward. This focuses development on actual business goals. It also facilitates clear communication, so everyone understands what is happening, what should be happening, and where things are going wrong. ATDD is a contextual approach to exploring software requirements. Stakeholders suggest scenarios of how the software will be used, then use those to define requirements and design functional tests. The process sometimes even uncovers stakeholders who were missing from the process. Having realistic examples rather than technical abstracts improves communication between clients and developers.Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
Under this evolution of Test-Driven Development (TDD), software is built incrementally according to a user story. Developers create features and adjust design specifically in response to real-world behavior and feedback. The process is dynamic and responsive:- A product owner explains part of the process.
- Developers write a corresponding feature.
- Testers check whether the feature supports the user story.
- Feature describes the feature being tested.
- “An error message alerting users who make mistakes on the contact form.”
- Scenario is putting the behavior being described in context.
- “A user is filling in the contact form.”
- Given sets the beginning state of the scenario.
- “If the user enters letters into the phone number space”
- When describes an action the user takes.
- “When the user hits send”
- Then details the testable outcome.
- “The form reloads with the invalid entry outlined in red and an error message explaining how to correct it.”
Final Thoughts
Good communication is the antidote for nearly all major problems that can derail projects. It follows, then, that the best development philosophies for enterprise software development revolve around improving communication and understanding among stakeholders. Taking the time to prevent misalignment from the start leads to more productive development and a higher quality final product.At Concepta, we measure our success by the success of our clients. That’s why we use contextual development methods to be sure our products support specific business goals. Set up a complimentary appointment with one of our development team to find out what we can do for you!