The Art of Project Management

6.6. Questions for iterations

With the first cut at a prototype, tons of new ideas and questions will come up. This will include suggestions for changes, enhancements, and new ideas to try. If it's an early prototype, its next iteration might focus on exploring big ideas or wide changes. If it's a late prototype, iterations should be used to narrow the design space and help make decisions. As each iteration comes together, there's an opportunity for a new discussion about the progress of the design. The best framework for these discussions is a set of questions that help evaluate the design and that focus the discussion in a productive way.

Here are some questions for early prototype iterations:

• What requirements does this satisfy? Can we verify this? (Usability, use-cases, etc.)

• What's good and bad about this design relative to the problem it's supposed to solve? (Pros and cons for each of usability, business, technology, considerations.)

• What data do we need to evaluate this design? (Perhaps a usability study, an informal review by a programmer for engineering sanity, marketing, an expert's opinion, etc.)

• What did we learn from this design that we should keep in the next attempt? Eliminate?

• What might we try in the next iteration to make this better?

• Are there other ideas from the idea groupings or from other prototypes that we should include?

Here are some questions for late prototype iterations:

• What decision does this help us make?

• Which open issue will this help us close?

• Has this ...