The IconProcess defines best practices for building strategic, usable websites and web applications. Icon gathered its best practices for seamlessly integrating business strategy, creative design, and usability into the development of robust websites and applications. These best practices from award-winning teams are known as the IconProcess. The IconProcess defines a structured yet flexible set of activities, milestones, and usable templates for roles such as:

• Business Strategists
• Content Managers
• Graphic Designers
• Information Architects
• Project Managers
• Requirements Analysts
• Usability Evaluators

Best Practices Revealed
Benefit from the IconProcess by integrating these best practices with your current methodology, the Unified Process, or an agile method through "process plug-ins."

Usability testing, information architecture, business strategy, and other process plug-ins are available for purchase.

Choose one or more techniques to enhance your current approach. Learn these techniques in Icon training courses (visit iconatg.com/training/) or by working with an Icon mentor (call 866 785-4266).

An IconProcess Plug-in is a set of documented role and staffing recommendations, activity and artifact descriptions, and templates. (Some artifacts such as prototypes have no templates.)

Each process extension covers a specific aspect of the web development process (e.g., usability testing, user research, information architecture, online marketing). To increase success, each extension contains recommendations for:

• Timing and frequency of activities
• Tailoring the activities and templates
• Staffing roles

A process extension may be purchased singly or in bundles for business strategy and user experience. Icon offers related training courses.

You may purchase the following process plug-ins individually:

• Enterprise Analysis
• Marketing
• User Research
• Information Architecture
• Usability Testing

Packages of process plug-ins are also available. Packages contain multiple plug-ins, including some that are available only as part of a package.

e-Business Strategy Package

• Enterprise Analysis
• Marketing
• Branding (available exclusively in this package)

Web-enabled User-Centered Design Package

• User Research
• Information Architecture
• Content (available exclusively in this package)
• Creative Design (available exclusively in this package)
• Usability Testing

1. Select an IconProcess Plug-in or two to enhance your existing process.
2. Use the role description to understand the skills needed by someone to fulfill the role. Select someone to fill the role.
3. Review the related activity description. Use its timing information to determine where an activity fits into your project's lifecycle. The description uses multiple terms (e.g., discovery, inception, start-up, requirements phase) for each project phase so you can map the activity into your lifecycle, using your terminology.
4. Use the artifact tailoring criteria to determine how formal the artifact or deliverable needs to be on your project. You will also learn how others typically tailor the template for different types of projects.
5. Perform the activity using the recommendations and tips in the activity description.
6. Use the template to document information or as an additional checklist of decisions to make and topics to consider.

No. The IconProcess plug-ins are available to download for free under the Eclipse Public License v1.0.

Icon has assembled two packages of process plug-ins: e-Business Strategy Package, and Web-enabled User-Centered Design Package. Each plug-in contains workflows, tasks, role descriptions, artifact descriptions, and artifact templates (some artifacts such as prototypes have no templates.) Plug-ins can be downloaded by visiting our IconProcess plug-ins page.

A free consultation with one of our process mentors may help you determine the best solution. Contact us or call us at 866 785-4266 so we can discuss your needs.

If your situation is complex and a phone consultation is insufficient, you may need a process assessment. An assessment objectively evaluates your situation. Icon customizes its assessment services to fit your needs and time frame. Each assessment produces a specific action plan for resolving issues.

The action plan gives teams concrete short-term and longer-term tasks and recommendations. This guidance increases a team's success rate. This confidence is especially important when a team is using technologies or techniques that are new to them.

Many teams choose to supplement a process assessment with a usability, technical architecture, or other assessment. The usability, architecture, and other assessments are also available without a process assessment.

Contact us or call us at 866 785-4266 so we can discuss your needs.

The IconProcess is Icon's version of the Unified Process, modified with best practices for website and web application development. The Unified Process lacks roles, activities, and artifacts for:

• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing
• Branding
• User Research and User-Centered Design
• Content Assessment and Development
• Information Architecture
• Usability Testing
• Creative Design

The IconProcess integrates those business strategy and user experience activities with software development activities. The IconProcess replaces the Unified Process's Business Modeling and Requirements disciplines with Icon's e-Business Strategy and Web-enabled User-Centered Design disciplines, respectively. Some activities and artifacts in the Unified Process are removed or modified significantly to meet e-development needs.

The IconProcess is what Icon teams use. It is not for everyone. However, you can still benefit from our research.

You can use IconProcess techniques by purchasing and applying process plug-ins to your existing methodology. You do not need to use all aspects of the Unified Process. You do not need to use all aspects of the IconProcess. You can apply process plug-ins whether you use an agile method like XP, the Unified Process, or a proprietary process. Improve your project management, web design, or website development skills by selecting and using only the techniques you need.

You have several options. First, you could ensure that at least one developer has human-computer interaction (HCI) knowledge and experience. In IconProcess terms, that developer would play the role of an Information Architect and/or Usability Evaluator. Through pair programming, that developer can spread HCI and usable design practices to others. The process extension for information architecture provides recommendations for effectively structuring websites and web pages. This process extension would benefit your team.

Second, your customer could write a user story requesting usability testing. Frequent, small-scale, and focused usability tests without extensive written reports complement XP. The IconProcess usability testing process extension offers guidance.

Third, developers and customers could improve their skills by taking courses such as:

• Introduction to Usability
• Information Architecture & User Interface Design or
• Requirements Elicitation & Facilitation

The IconProcess and its publicly available process plug-ins are useful and practical, by design. The IconProcess developers are practitioners - people who work on projects every day, across multiple disciplines. The IconProcess team codified Icon's best practices for:

• Competitive Analysis
• e-Business Strategy Development
• User Research
• Use Case Development
• Information Architecture
• Usability Testing
• Optimizing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Content Assessment and Management
• Creative Design
• Merging Disparate Websites Into One
• Designing Complex Applications
• Project Management

We have organized, documented, refined, and integrated these proven techniques. Real teams successfully use these techniques. Icon's process plug-ins reveal these best practices so you can improve your website development process.

Many teams start with one or two IconProcess plug-ins selected to meet their immediate needs. You can download and apply process plug-ins individually or in bundles. You should only use a process extension if it adds value to your web development process. Which process plug-ins you need may vary by project.

A free consultation with one of our process mentors or a process assessment will help you determine which IconProcess Plug-ins you need. Contact us or call us at 866 785-4266 so we can discuss your needs.

Any successful use of process must include tailoring and carefully introducing new best practices and activities. In a nutshell, here's what works:

1. Assess your current situation and find the areas that are causing the most difficulty. Usually, one or more best practices or process plug-ins can help.
2. Identify the roles, concepts, activities, and artifacts that address your immediate needs.
3. Buy the related process plug-ins.
4. Identify skill gaps and follow a plan to build the skills you need. Your success ultimately depends on your team members' skills.
5. Establish a plan for introducing complementary parts of the process. Adapt new aspects over time - do not try to do it all at once.

One final tip: use a mentor to help you tailor, apply, and spread the new techniques within your team and then to other projects.

Icon provides free management briefings to explain the concepts and benefits associated with the IconProcess or any of its specific aspects, such as:

• e-Business Strategy
• User Research
• Usability Testing
• Use Cases
• Information Architecture
• Content Assessment and Content Management
• Creative Design
• Iterative Development and Iterative Project Management

We can help you persuade your boss and colleagues that user-centered design and usability engineering techniques improve web development results.

Contact us or call us at 866 785-4266 to see if you qualify for a briefing.

Icon provides training, consulting and mentoring, (at your site, coaching you) in all aspects of the IconProcess and its process plug-ins. Icon mentors can transfer skills in:

• Process Tailoring
• e-Business Strategy Development
• Iterative Project Management
• User Research
• Use Case Development
• Information Architecture (IA)
• Usability Testing
• Optimizing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Content Assessment and Management
• Creative Design
• Merging Disparate Websites into one
• Designing Complex Applications

Contact us or call us at 866 785-4266 so we can learn about your situation. Together, we'll develop an approach that suits your needs.

No. Because every project is different, the IconProcess and its process plug-ins are flexible. You can change the process to fit your project and team culture. Small teams with very good internal customer relationships have different needs from large teams in contractual situations.

Your project's size, complexity, resources, and organizational culture will influence to what extent you perform activities and how much documentation you produce. The level of formality for artifacts when building a brochure-ware site is very different from building embedded software for a medical device. Tailoring or "picking and choosing" parts of the process is appropriate.

An artifact is a document, a model (UML or otherwise), a set of images, code - virtually anything - created during a project. Artifacts differ from "deliverables" as deliverables are formally presented (i.e., delivered) to the client.

Typical web development artifacts are:

• Use Case Diagrams
• Site Maps
• Wireframes
• Schedules
• Personas
• Class Diagrams
• User Interface Prototypes
• Source Code
• Usability Test Results

You may contribute feedback, criticism, and recommendations for web development process improvements. Just contact us.

We strongly believe that more people using and providing input to the IconProcess and its process plug-ins will make them better. We want to hear from you!

Lou Hawn, Managing Director
Voice: (866) 785-4266

Mailing address:
Icon
17999 Chesterfield Airport Road
Chesterfield, MO 63005
USA

Lou Hawn is the point of contact for public relations, press releases, and partnerships.

If you need expert commentary on web development processes or other areas, Lou can answer your questions or recommend other experts in:

• Agile modeling and other agile methods
• Business strategy
• Creative design
• Information architecture
• Interaction design
• Iterative development
• Project management for the Web and other types of software
• Requirements
• Software architecture
• Software development lifecycles and process
• Unified Modeling Language (UML)
• Usability
• Use cases