Prototypes

I l @ ve RuBoard

Every Web project is just different enough from the one before. There is always a feature that you haven't done, some new navigation you would like to try, or something about the site's design that you aren't sure will work in all required browsers. How do you reduce the risk of these unknowns?

What works for us is prototypes. These can be anything from one HTML page to test a part of a design to a small program to test a piece of functionality. Whatever method you are using to verify that something will work, don't be quick to schedule the development in the same iteration. Try to keep the task you are testing to a future iteration just in case it can't be done.

Remember that prototypes are disposable. They are about learning something and have no other use. Never use prototype code in production code. Many people write their prototypes in a different programming language from the one used for production to help resist the temptation of reuse.

I l @ ve RuBoard