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How Crayons & Post-its Can Alleviate Data Distress and Object Obscurity
Carol Treat Morton & Samah Majadla Thursday, April 30, 2015
www.menloinnovations.com
www.menloinnovations.com
It’s about the
code
dev
It’s about the user
experience
ux
It’s about the data
structure
dba
The Problem Space Problem
We’re about to blow
our budget!
pm
How can teams quickly share a common understanding of a project’s business process and model?
Who are we?
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Menlo’s mission as an organization is to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology®. For our clients, we do this by creating software that is widely adopted and enjoyably used by their intended end users.
Who are you? Meet your team!Well...Hello. Tell
me a little...
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Pair up and grab a form
1 minute: Person A
asks
1 minute: Person B
asks
Share with table
team
Why do we build models?
To share and make sense
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“Traditional” process and relationship models
Who can create these? Who can make sense of them?
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Object-oriented
programming (OOP) is a
programming paradigm using "objects" – data
structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. (thank you, Wikipedia)
“technical folks”the rest of us
HUH?
A workflow
consists of an orchestrated and
repeatable pattern of business activity enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials,
provide services, or process information.
(thank you, Wikipedia)
Symptoms of model problems
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Team more confused •Only those with previous traditional object or data modeling experience could understand it
Team communication more cumbersome •Because it took up a huge spot on the wall, meetings had to be held around it
Less collaborative, inclusive and spontaneous •Half the team spent communication time scratching their heads, submerged in a cloud of ambiguity
So we ran the experiment… and are here to share it with you
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Think “steps a user takes to reach a goal”So what is an workflow, anyhow?
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A workflow
consists of an orchestrated and
repeatable pattern of business activity enabled
by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. (thank you, Wikipedia)
dev the rest of us
I was hungry and didn’t
feel like cooking, so I decided to order out from my favorite restaurant. I
went online, checked out the menu, picked out what I wanted, placed my order and
paid for it. They said it would be delivered in 15 minutes, but it took a half-hour.
Do the simplest thing possible First, brainstorm all the steps
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Order
contact information
Pay
Wait for delivery
Get Hungry
Find the website
Find the menu
Check out the prices
Now rearrange the post-its to create a workflow
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Order
contact information
Pay Wait for delivery
Get Hungry
Find the website
Find the menu
Check out the prices
Now you try...
Meet your new client, Greenwood Parking Authority
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Think “nouns about the business”So what is an object, anyhow?
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Object-oriented
programming (OOP) is a programming
paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of
data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. (thank you, Wikipedia)
dev the rest of us
I was hungry and didn’t
feel like cooking, so I decided to order out from my favorite restaurant. I
went online, checked out the menu, picked out the food I wanted, placed my order and
paid for it with my Visa. They said it would be delivered in 40 minutes,
but it took an hour.
Do the simplest thing possible First bring the objects to life
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website
menuway to order
food itemsway to pay
contact informationrestaurant
CustomerWebsite
Now create relationships
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way to order
food items
way to pay
contact information
menu
Customer websiterestaurant
Website
A restaurant may have many customers or
none?
Maybe the website it just a way to order?
XDo we really need the contact information
object?
Putting it all together Workflows and object models everyone can
understand
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You know you’re on the right track when: •The object model is invited to and actively participates in all project meetings •The least technical person on the team can explain the model to a newcomer •The model fits on a small enough board to be easily portable •The model is actively used as an artifact of conversations between disciplines
