How to Build the Right Software (and Choose the Right Stack)

NEW COURSE! Reduce scope creep and technical debt, design software and make stack choices that solve the right problems.

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What you'll learn

Learn how to define clear requirements by asking "why" to dig deep into the real needs behind every request, moving from solution to the underlying problem..
Gain skills to prevent and control scope creep while encouraging creative solutions by embracing constraints.
Learn to choose a tech stack, from JavaScript frameworks to Low Code solutions, and understand the strengths of each approach to make smart technology choices.
Harness the power of user research to uncover real user needs, test usability, and express requirements as problem statements that guide development.
Approach feature requests as clues to underlying problems, not requirements. Learn techniques to uncover the real issues and make impactful additions.
Make the most of legacy software, recognize missed opportunities in direct rewrites, and practice building lean, purposeful solutions.

Description

New Course Released November 2024!

It's one challenge to build software, it's another to know what software to build and what stack to build it in.

How can you solve the real problems of your users, stakeholders and clients? How can you prevent and control scope creep while deciding what to build? How can you arrive at the most effective MVP? How can you decide on the most effective technology stack for your project? How can you manage feature requests properly? Where do you begin when rewriting legacy software?

All these questions and more are answered in this course. I bring to this course 25 years as a software developer, manager, and user experience designer in small, medium, and large organizations, and I'll cover real world examples, let you practice with quizzes, and provide a PDF worksheet to use in your work.

Who is this course for?

Developers, designers, team leads, project managers, and requirements engineers. Anyone who has anything to do with deciding what software will actually be built and deployed.

What we will I learn?

Techniques to reverse engineer requirements, feature requests, and existing software into problem statements that can be used to determine the best software solutions to actually create.

How to overcome the weaknesses of the concept of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to make the best decisions on what features are truly needed for the software to be successful.

Decide on your software stack, looking at JavaScript frameworks, static site generators, content-driven frameworks, Low-Code and No-Code solutions, content management systems and more, analyzing the purpose of each kind of tool to determine which is best for your project.

Build the best software by embracing user research (user interviews, user observation, usability testing, and more) as a fundamental aspect of your software development process.

Handle feature requests the proper way, viewing them as clues to problems yet to be solved rather than requirements to be estimated.

Learn how to view legacy software as a treasure trove of existing user research, and avoid making the mistake of rewriting software screen for screen.

This course will give you concrete tools to immediately implement in your software development process. Save time, money, and stress by learning to build the right software in the right stack.

Who this course is for:

Developers, designers, team leads, project managers, and requirements engineers.