As I embark on a software project on the side with my husband, I’ve been thinking about deliverables. I’ve been in many situations where deliverables are presented out of context – where there is not a story that connects the deliverables. In his article: What Makes a Good Deliverable, Dan Brown gives us some pointers on how to tell a story in its entirety. He points out that great deliverables should convey all of the following (excerpted from Dan’s article):
- The current state of the project.
- How the current design decisions relate to previous activities and how they set up the next set of activities.
- The overall theme of the design project.
- What the most important design decisions are, and how they relate to the overall theme.
- The major issues facing the design project.
Like Dan, I believe that without a theme or overarching goals for the project, the deliverables could fall short in conveying the story. Continuing to reiterate those goals and themes throughout the project, not just at the beginning, and throughout all the deliverables is, in my opinion, key to a successful product/project.
