Notes from 48th International STC Conference
Chicago, Illinois, May 13-16, 2001

A Storyboard-Based Web Development Life Cycle

Mark Carbrey
Monster.com

Mark Carbrey is an engineer by training who is now managing a creative communications team for Monster.com. His engineering orientation predisposes him to looking for ways to make the creative design process more efficient. Storyboarding is one of those ways.

Session Description: This demonstration profiled a Web development life cycle that focuses on storyboards and uses cases to integrate the needs of writers and information architects. It explains and exemplifies storyboarding techniques.

Slides: For a hard copy of the presenter's slides, contact Dan Voss.

• Carbrey stressed the importance of up-front planning in product development. His department has developed a sophisticated storyboarding process, with user-friendly templates to save time and help new-hires rapidly learn the system.
• The focus is on the front end of the process, where the relatively low-cost process of storyboarding can significantly reduce the end cost of deliverables. Most of the cost resides in the subsequent information design and system design phases; storyboarding up front allows the costlier development tasks to focus, with less rework.
• The processes that are formalized in storyboarding are going to happen at the front end of a life cycle regardless. It makes sense to use an efficient, disciplined process that speeds product definition and lessens rework down the road.
• The discovery process includes product scope and requirements definition. Specification includes analysis (storyboarding), information design, and system design.
• Life cycle is a multi-organizational process for systematic creation of products using predefined techniques, notational conventions, templates, and tools.
• An integrated product team is responsible for product definition and specification.
• Accurate definition of requirements up front lessens costly iterations down the road, which not only waste fiscal resources but also drain human resources, causing attrition of key personnel and all the skills they have acquired through company investment in their training.
• "The product definition stage is the unifying and critical junction milestone in the overall product development life cycle."
• Product definition = definition of product scope, gathering of requirements, and analysis (storyboards).
• Integrated team includes a creative individual, a technology specialist, a documentation expert, and a training person. The Monster.com process parallels our IPDTs and concurrent engineering approach.
• Product definition includes a high-level statement of why and what need is being fulfilled; defines audiences, motivation, needs, core strategy, and tactics; and provides an overall definition of a boundary for the opportunity.
• Process begins with role definitions and proceeds to use-case descriptions. (Use case: a user performs a behaviorally related sequence of transactions in a dialogue with a system.)
• Presenter recommends using only the top-level use-case descriptions, not full-blown use cases detailing all transactions. The point is not to go into excruciating detail, merely to give focus to analysis of the product.
• Stories are rich descriptions of settings, goals, roles, and activities presented in a coherent way (a set of storyboards with a product scope and requirements).
• Storyboards provide sequences of images which demonstrate the relationship between events and actions within a system. Use cases and storyboards together describe the way a system is used for a specific task. Storyboards convey function, navigation (flow) and structure (form). Storyboards are supported by descriptive text annotations and use cases (use-case descriptions and, optionally, full scenarios)
• Storyboarding is analogous to cinematographic processes.
   
• Determine audience and goals
• Define setting and characters
• Determine key events and acions
• Structure storyboards into a narrative
• Create final presentation style and medium
• Review in a team and iterate
• Storyboarding includes site-mapping. PowerPoint templates greatly speed the process. Templating allows complex mock-ups to be created in 15 to 20 minutes.
• Style guide should include:
   
• Visual style (appearance guidelines)
• Layout and structure
• Graphics and multimedia
• Formatting standards
• Branding and legal guidelines
• Templates and examples
• Automation of the process through templates and style guides allows product teams to focus on functionality rather than chartsmanship.
• Summary:
   
• The storyboarding process is proven across industries.
• Product definition is key to life cycle success.
• It results in highly reusable deliverables.
• It fosters communication and promotes innovation.
• Question: What review process is used to ensure buy-in to the storyboards before the investment in full information design and system design?
  
  Answer: IPDTs have ownership, are accountable for that product definition. Reviewers share their motivation to get the product on the market quickly. Reviews are held to massage the storyboards (similar to our power storyboarding).
• Question: How do you bound scope?
  
  Answer: Small core team of a creative person, a technology person, and a documentation person bound the problem; get buy-in from the review/approval team; and then flesh out the plan with detailed storyboards.
• Question:: How do you handle severe budget constraints? Can the process be customized to small, low-budget projects?
  
  Answer: Personnel familiarity with the process and templates allow the process to be tailored to fit the situation.