Although primarily a tool for the production of software and applications, its tenets and overriding focus on the “customer”, regardless of whether they are internal or external, are to be applauded and incorporated into design project production as well. All too often the arc of website design or website redesign projects is so long, that it is hard for the producers (designers / developers) to manage the project and the customer. No news is NOT good news in this case.

So the customer is left with the difficult task of imagining where things are in the process, what further is required of them, and due dates are viewed suspiciously by both sides. Add to this the long gaps of silence that often occur between the parties during busier cycles or during vacation periods, and you have a recipe for tempers flaring.

The Agile Manifesto and Agile-modeling deliver very clear boundaries and expectations for the client-side and for the DES/DEV-side. Of greatest import perhaps is the simple credo:

Business people and  (designers/) developers must work together daily throughout the project.

So much can be managed and course-corrected with this approach. Certainly the anxiety of presenting the first designs to a client will probably never go away, but having daily face-to-face meetings or phone/email conversations will offer the web design team many chances to match client language to design prototypes, and to build a strong communication link should those first samples be “off”.

Click here for more on the Agile Manifesto and be sure to check back as I develop more content in this area and interview well-known Agile practitioners.