Delivering Office 365 ApplicationsON SHORT DEADLINES

SHADEED ELEAZER

What We Will Cover

How to effectively gather requirements with short deadlines in mind

How to quickly decide on development/design/configuration approach 

A proven approach to iterative testing and change request within the 72 hour window of application building 

How to set up ad hoc testing groups and test scenario suggestions to ensure applications are properly functioning

Requirements in a Time Crunch What if requirements change at the last minute? How do you avoid scope creep? How do you determine which approach to utilize in short period

of time?

The Requirements..(The Mission)

System shall allow 1 vote per user System shall provide pdf of candidate requirements System shall allow online voting System shall provide candidate bio information within given

section Users cannot see additional votes The “ENTIRE” staff needs to access the site and vote Vice President needs to access voting information at all times

Maximizing the Whiteboard

“If it doesn’t make sense on a Whiteboard…..” Group sessions as often as possible during design and

development process Get sign-off on the Whiteboard Take picture of all Whiteboarding sessions. Record if possible Expect changes to be made. Adopt an iterative mindset

The Approach

How can this application be built with the required features in the least amount of time? (Minimum Viable Project)

How can we keep the design clean and minimalistic? How can we “hit the bulls-eye” and keep management satisfied? How do we “educate” an organization new to SharePoint Online? InfoPath, SharePoint Survey List, Excel Survey, or 3rd Party App?

Design and Usability

Design and Usability

Focus on uniform look and feel to present content Remove standard SharePoint lists and libraries from homepage Minimize usage of the Quick Launch bar Create buttons and use throughout the site layout Which pages will open in a new tab vs. same browser session URL redirects

Testing

Adoption

51 employees submitted their vote Usability of the Staff Voting Poll provided minimal user error Biggest issue: Logging in with new accounts (less than 4

reported)

Version 2.0

What could we have done better?

Final Thoughts

Collaborate and agree upon requirements Expect changes. Be flexible Determine a testing team upfront Do not build the 8th wonder of the world. Seek for MVP Determine team to support application during and after launch