A low risk approach to design & develop enterprise web apps

Sujeet Pillai

  1. Jan 27, 2017
  2. 4 min read
 
             
Enterprises are constantly commissioning, creating and deploying web applications to achieve various objectives across their business operations. The standard operating procedure for such deployments is a proposal stage, an extensive discovery and functional requirements documentation stage, implementation, testing and rollout. This traditional approach turns out to be a very expensive and time-consuming affair, and as a result, most ideas are nixed early. To mitigate this situation and boost innovation in enterprises, Incentius proposes an alternative strategy for such deployments. We call this the thick prototype strategy internally.

Thick Prototype Strategy

The core aspect of this strategy is to enable the enterprise business owner to commission a 'thick' prototype for new ideas at a relatively lower cost and quicker turn-around time. This is basically a prototype web frontend that encompasses almost all front-end functionality. It lays out in detail the frontend design and workflow and implements most functionality (or mimics the functionality) in full. This thick prototype will also mock-up sample reports, visualizations and dashboards at this stage. The focus is on mimicking the front-end look and feel and workflow functionality.

A new discovery process

The primary change in such a strategy is that the discovery process is now embedded with the prototype creation stage. The thick prototype is iterated based on client inputs; hence, requirements and functionality are captured in the live visual form rather than in functional requirements documentation. If the client is capable of providing a consistent dataset of mock data to populate this prototype, it makes this stage even more effective. This aspect helps thick prototypes also mimic backend functionality to certain limits as well. A large number of enterprise apps are essentially workflows with a reporting/visualization layer when they're broken down to the bare bones. This is why the thick prototype is quite effective as a discovery process since workflow interaction points are beautifully explained using visual prototypes rather than extensive textual documentation and screenshots. The dynamic prototype also allows for capturing the exact workflow functionality better than the static screenshot or extensive textual requirements. Business users/owners can understand information flow, visual element positioning and logical operations early on in the app development stage. Usually, the business users/owners don't get a view into how the application looks and feels until the UAT (User Acceptance Testing) stage. The visual approach to discovery in the Thick Prototype case also facilitates better user experience-based design.

Better funding and reduced risk

The thick prototype concept also enables quicker buy-in from senior stakeholders and allows for rapid deployment of resources and funding for such enterprise application projects. Business leaders are generally more willing to fund projects that they can visualize. These thick prototypes can also help create end-user excitement and hence advocacy for the application. Gaining end-user buy-in early, along with incorporating any relevant feedback from them, also works as a conduit to better funding for such enterprise apps. In addition to better funding, the thick prototype concept also reduces the risk in such applications. The thick prototype is inexpensive to build in comparison to even a full discovery stage in the traditional approach. The thick prototype would only typically run between 15-25% of the total estimated project cost. This prototype is also sufficient to demo to relevant stakeholders and gain buy-in from them. A GO/NO-GO decision point is included after the thick prototype is delivered. As a result, if stakeholders are not agreed to the proposed solution, the total sunk cost of the project is fractional and not substantial. Since the thick prototype discovery process is iterative and open to suggestions and changes early, this substantially reduces the risk of rework during the build phase, reducing the risk of scope creep and allowing for better control over project costs.

Scaling during build

If the right approach and technology are used in building this thick prototype, it can be appropriately scaled during the build phase to create the full application. Such an approach reduces design anxiety amongst the project owners since the final system will look and work pretty much exactly how the prototype did. The project owners, end-users and sponsors relate a lot better to the final application delivered than in the traditional approach. A supplementary benefit is that training documentation/videos/resources can be built reliably off of the thick prototype which is available early and can be pre-gamed to the user base before the actual launch of the full application. This helps in creating awareness about the solution up-front with the help of different support avenues and allows the user base to hit the ground running in terms of the usability of the application during the launch phase.

Spur innovation amongst enterprise apps.

The low financial risk involved in this thick prototype concept can lead to spurring innovation in the enterprise application space. A larger number of business owners can try out their ideas without extensive budget allocations. Such innovation will lead to the next big idea in enterprise management that would create greater value for shareholders, efficiency amongst employees and transparency for the upper management.

Case Study

A client recently approached us to create a dashboard to supply their field reps with the ability to track sales performance. However, they were very particular that the dashboard should be based on modern design concepts and intuitive and easy for the field reps to follow. Our suggestion was to adopt the thick prototype paradigm for the project. Incentius created a prototype frontend for this dashboard with UI/UX elements mimicking how it would perform in production with mock data. The client could visualize the front end and even present it to some key opinion leaders in the field and get feedback before the project was commissioned completely. This also helped the field leaders provide a list of changes they would like to see. Incentius iterated on the prototype until all stakeholders were satisfied and then scaled the same prototype to the full application. This approach was critical to the client having complete control over exactly the product they were receiving and made the launch of the dashboard a success. The approach was so successful that the client requested for an extension of this platform to add new feature sets and wants to first look at a thick prototype for these additional requests before moving to the full build. This paradigm has become the standard operating procedure for this engagement.

Incentius pioneered this concept through trial and error to get the technology, build approach and project management just right. We have successfully created several such thick prototypes and scaled them to full applications as well. Drop us a note if you would like your business owners to spur game-changing innovation in your organization while being exposed to lower risk.

What do you think of our Thick Prototype paradigm? Please feel free to let us know in the comments.

 

About Author
Sujeet Pillai
As an experienced polymath, I seamlessly blend my understanding of business, technology, and science.

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Mindgap

Incentius has been a fantastic partner for us. Their strong expertise in technology helped deliver some complex solutions for our customers within challenging timelines. Specific call out to Sujeet and his team who developed custom sales analytics dashboards in SFDC for a SoCal based healthcare diagnostics client of ours. Their professionalism, expertise, and flexibility to adjust to client needs were greatly appreciated. MindGap is excited to continue to work with Incentius and add value to our customers.

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Founder & CEO

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Having worked so closely for half a year on our website project, I wanted to thank Incentius for all your fantastic work and efforts that helped us deliver a truly valuable experience to our WorldatWork members. I am in awe of the skills, passion, patience, and above all, the ownership that you brought to this project every day! I do not say this lightly, but we would not have been able to deliver a flawless product, but for you. I am sure you'll help many organizations and projects as your skills and professionalism are truly amazing.

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Senior Project Manager

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It was a pleasure working with Incentius to build a data collection platform for the off-grid solar sector in India. It is rare to find a team with a combination of good understanding of business as well as great technological know-how. Incentius team has this perfect combination, especially their technical expertise is much appreciated. We had a fantastic time working with their expert team, especially with Amit.

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Humblx

Choosing Incentius to work with is one of the decisions we are extremely happy with. It's been a pleasure working with their team. They have been tremendously helpful and efficient through the intense development cycle that we went through recently. The team at Incentius is truly agile and open to a discussion in regards to making tweaks and adding features that may add value to the overall solution. We found them willing to go the extra mile for us and it felt like working with someone who rooted for us to win.

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Transportation & Logistics Consulting Organization

Incentius is very flexible and accommodating to our specific needs as an organization. In a world where approaches and strategies are constantly changing, it is invaluable to have an outsourcer who is able to adjust quickly to shifts in the business environment.

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The Incentius resource was highly motivated and developed a complex forecasting model with minimal supervision. He was thorough with quality checks and kept on top of multiple changes.

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