A basic principle I always try to stick to with Dialogue is to keep things as simple as possible (Keep It Simple Stupid). If something looks too complicated to easily explain then it probably is. Take the following example (using word Mergefields to define the content) from an insurance document I have worked on recently:- Continue reading
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Effective Testing Techniques
Last time we talked about the impact leaving testing to chance can have on your implementations (and it’s not good), this week we’re going to look at the different types of testing that you can use to give your testing the best chance of catching the defects it’s supposed to. Continue reading
4 Reasons Why Your Implementations Fail
Testing accounts for a significant part of any development effort. Estimates put this at between 50% – 80% of producing the first working version of an application. If the lifecycle of an application is considered from inception to retirement, then test and quality assurance costs are an even larger part of the total cost. Continue reading
Ten Steps to Make Application Migration Less Painful
Changing your toolset can be a headache at the best of times, but when you have multiple tools and potentially multiple platforms, handling large amounts of critical customer communications getting the migration right can become a juggling act of monumental proportions. Here are ten steps to take away some of the pain. Continue reading
Don’t Just Design Solutions For Clients
One of the first steps in any application design is to work out what functionality is required. Almost always (certainly in document design anyway) the only requirements considered are the client’s requirements, but think about this for a second. Who will be doing most of the maintenance on the application? Who will be investigating any production errors that occur once the application is live? Who is responsible for testing? You’ve got three additional stakeholders in the application straight away right there, how much thought do you generally give to the requirements of maintenance, support and testing? Continue reading