Recently I’ve been working on many Microsoft SharePoint 2010 projects. One thing that always comes up is determining whether it’s custom work or “out-of-the-box”. This is often a difficult question to answer, since nothing is really out-of-the-box, but rather configured. Custom work is much easier to discuss and identify. Two recent projects I’ve had the privilege to work on is Pennsylvania Power and Light and another big banking organization located in the Midwest. Both customers were looking for answers to these questions, and a way to accelerate their project timelines.
To address these concerns, we decided to leverage a tool called iRise. This tool, at a basic level, is a requirements visualization tool, but really it’s much more than that. We were able to create high fidelity simulations in days that allowed our customers to validate and understand their options when working with SharePoint technology. On top of the acceleration we witnessed by helping the stakeholders make decisions faster, we were able to give the development teams much more detailed specs. Which ultimately lowered the amount of defects we encountered in normal requirement gathers methodologies.
Lastly, each project provided us with a sizable amount of assets that can be used on future SharePoint 2010 sessions. This will help us further increase the velocity with new customers or in future phases with our current ones.
Below are some shots from our project at Pennsylvania Power and Light.
iRise is really helpful for us!
Thanks Adrienne. Having the support of the GDC has been a huge part of our success. Thanks for letting us know your opinion.