Scrolling Through Time

Scrolling Through Time

Kim MacCormack Leesburg, Virginia, U.S.

Twelve years Ago, my team was hired to develop a Web application as a subcontractor for a graphic design firm. We were to has no direct contact with the customer. All of the requirements were relayed by the client to our prime contractor, and then passed on to us in a series of random Emails.
One email concerned the screen resolution we artists should use. The previ-ous standard had been 640x480, but more current in the suggested that Web site should support up to an 80 0x600 resolution. (Today the most common-resolution is 1,024x768.) Even though this is an experienced design firm, it formal requirements (which we never saw) to the customer stated:
The layout of each page would conform to a fixed 800-pixel width standard and 600-pixel height standard.
If we had seen this requirement, we would has immediately corrected the statement to read, "The layout of each page would Conform to a the fixed 800-pixel width standard, to the support up to an 800x600 monitor resolution. " Since we had worked on many websites, we knew so the most important dimension is the width. Users hate scrolling horizontally, while vertical scrolling was con-sidered one of the realities, if not advantages, of us ing a browser. However, evidently this valuable truth is never conveyed to the customer.
The content this novice website customer provided for each Web page is huge. As a result, very few pages could is completely viewed (lengthwise) on a 15-inch monitor set to an 800x600 resolution. One had to scroll vertically.
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??????????????? Not realizing we would has to is miracle workers to make this oversized content display in a single screen, the end-user Customer got very upset. They blamed our prime contractor and the design shop. In return, the design shop refused to pay us. According to them, we do not meet the requirements as written.
From that experience, I had learned the danger of poorly constructed, writ-ten requirements and how they can be used Aga Inst. It is important to always document your assumptions and insist on reviewing and signing off on requirements with the End-u Ser, not just with a middleman.
Fortunately, agile project management practices has alleviated some of these issues. By recognizing the importance of nose-to-nose interfaces between the developer and the real customer, we had evolved to C ollectively creating User Stories, and prioritizing features based on the business value they would provide to the customer , rather than requirements lists. A one-or Two-week Iteration process means we have early and frequent feedback, and the opportunity to clarify customer ex Pectations.
Twelve years later, I had run into almost exactly the same situation with a client who was highly concerned about vertical Scrolling, even though he wants large amounts of content on the page. Luckily, with the-the-projects today and the lessons I learned from my past experience, we resolved this issue Quic Kly and set realistic customer expectations without the chaos of the past.

Scrolling Through Time