| "Today we can say that roughly one project in three will be successful; 35 percent is a good estimate. If all goes well, it will take us another eight years to get to 50 percent." This is what the article appearing on http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/feb06/marasco/index.html says. That is, at the current improvement of success rate by 1.7 percentage points a year, we could achieve 50% success rate in the year 2014. It also gives out the following report by Standish Group:
Standish Group's CHAOS reports:
Table 1: Software project success rates reported by Standish Group
| |
Date |
Success Rate |
| First CHAOS report |
1994 |
16% |
| "Extreme CHAOS" |
2001 |
28% |
| Most recent CHAOS |
2003 |
31% |
|
In Web Access's case though, the success rate is as high as 91%. This is for a base of over 100 projects that have been executed over a 6 year period. (2002 – 2007).
The Web Access Model
How do we achieve this effectiveness, is a question that jumps to mind. It’s really very simple. We solve the complexity of software in the initial interaction between the developer and the final user. The user draws out his expectations and we convert their ideas to features that are truly required, and those that can generate better business results. We generate this information without bombarding them with techie questions. Typical projects concentrate on building a superb product with umpteen features, not analyzing deeply whether the features are useful or not. We, however, concentrate on building a superb product with "only required" features, crunching down features that are of no use at all. We believe that a layperson should be able to intuitively use our product with little or preferably, no training.
Here are the 10 commandments that our developers follow for Human Technology:
Identify the purpose. Find a simple solution. Simple for the user. Not you.
Identify and design for the minimum input required from the user. And ensure common inputs are required just once.
Identify and design for all the different outputs required from the system. Allow the user to customize and save. And then available at 1 click.
Design a prototype with the user interface. And get the user to check and test it. Observe the use. And listen carefully to what she says. And also to what she doesn’t.
Ensure that no matter what the user does, she can’t mess up. The system protects her and her data. Also allow rollbacks.
Create a visually pleasing and appealing interface. Sexy models aren’t the only pretty things people love to see.
Use everyday analogies in the design. If you want to indicate a book, show a book spine. Better still, iconize it.
Make the interaction intuitive. To the user. Not you. Check this extensively by observing first time users. And listen to their questions carefully.
Have different interaction methodologies for first time users and power users. The power user controls can be hidden. But make sure they’re there.
Listen to user feedback. Interpret their responses. And implement whenever possible.
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