Storyboards


Storyboards are a prototyping technique borrowed from the film and cartoon industries. When a cartoonist is planning a cartoon, he sketches a number of linked pictures. These pictures identify the story line and guide the cartoonist in how many detailed pictures he needs to draw. A similar path is followed with movies: The script is sketched out on a storyboard, with a panel for each scene showing the actors, close-up or long shot, mood of the scene, and dialog for that scene. The director and the storyboard artist work on each panel, prototyping the movie, until the director is satisfied the story is being effectively told. Then they shoot the movie as it is laid out in the storyboard.

Building a storyboard means thinking of the proposed functionality as a story and breaking it into a series of steps, or discrete actions (Figure 12.8). Draw each action as a panel of the story. Many storyboards show the user at a screen in each panel, but, if possible, you should try to show the remainder of the work being done. Do not under any circumstances worry about your artistic ability. Stick figures with cartoon bubbles to indicate dialog are perfectly adequate. Don't be embarrassed to show your storyboard to your stakeholders. They probably are no better at drawing than you are. You are not trying to create great art, just produce a communicable representation of some work being done.

Figure 12.8.

A storyboard demonstrates to the potential users how a productin this case, different parts of a productcould work. Each panel represents an identifiable part of the story. The requirements analyst uses this kind of prototype to play through the product, experimenting with it and learning the requirements.


Sometimes one picture is enough to illustrate all the actions and outcomes for a use case (see Figure 12.9). For more complex use cases, or for playing out of several use cases or aspects of the whole product, you need a sequence of pictures.

Figure 12.9.

Some storyboards abandon the panel format and show most of the product in one layout. This example comes from an air traffic control project your authors are involved with. The storyboard uses Post-it notes and cards to show the different functionality of the proposed product. The tape and string are work flow connections between the functions. (Photo courtesy of Neil Maiden.)


We find storyboards to be a good starting point when exploring a business situation involving interactions between real people. Somehow, people identify with the sketched figures (no matter how badly drawn) and provide a lot of input on what can happen during the course of the product use case.




Mastering the Requirements Process
Mastering the Requirements Process (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0321419499
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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