Tips for Storyboarding

Storyboards help with "Yes, But" and "Undiscovered Ruins" syndromes.

The storyboarding technique is helpful in gaining early user feedback with simple, inexpensive tools. As such, storyboards are particularly effective at addressing the "Yes, But" syndrome. They also help address the "Undiscovered Ruins" syndrome by eliciting immediate user feedback as to what the system "doesn't appear to do." But, as with any technique, certain caveats apply. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you practice your storyboarding technique.

• Don't invest too much in a storyboard. Customers will be intimidated about making changes if it looks like a real work product or they think they might insult you, a particularly difficult problem in some cultures. It's OK to keep the storyboard clunky and sketchy, even crude. (See the storyboarding story at the end of this chapter.)

• If you don't change anything, you don't learn anything. Make the storyboard easy to modify. You should be able to modify a storyboard in a few hours.

• Don't make the storyboard too functional. If you do, some stakeholders may want you to "ship it." (In one real-world project, we suffered for years supporting an Excel/Visual Basic product that was never intended to be more than a storyboard.) Keep the storyboard sketchy; use tools and techniques that have no danger of making it into the field, especially for storyboards that are coded. ( Hint : If the application is to be implemented in Java, write the storyboard in Visual Basic.)

• Whenever possible, make the storyboard interactive. The customer's experience of use will generate more feedback and will elicit more new requirements than a passive storyboard will.