In the dynamic journey of product development, aligning everyone’s understanding of an application is often a complicated task. Depending on one’s role, interpretations can vary significantly. What a customer truly needs might be lost in translation between what a developer perceives and what a Quality Assurance professional comprehends. This disjointed approach can lead to unwelcome surprises during deployment or, worse, in front of your end customer. It’s a common scenario in many organizations today: the specifications don’t quite match up with what was developed and tested.
“The Three Amigos: Business, Development, and Testing”
The concept of the “Three Amigos” approach was introduced to cut through the fog of miscommunication and increase collaboration and communication. In many projects, people are still working in silos, but that’s where the Three Amigos approach makes a lot of sense – it encourages you to step out, meet people, and become amigos!
The Three Amigos concept brings together three stakeholders: Business, Development, and Testing/QA. By establishing a common language and involving these three roles from the outset, everyone gains a uniform understanding and can address potential issues much earlier.
“It’s a mindset to have more collaborative, transparent, and efficient product development”
The benefit of this approach is more than just communication. It’s a process that helps clarify requirements and work on potential issues at an early stage. When different perspectives talk to each other around the same table, each can share their viewpoint and complete the overall understanding. Take, for instance, a web application project- Involving UX design not only influences development but also vice versa. If developers point out that a fancy transition is time-consuming and not crucial for end-use, the Three Amigos can collaborate to set new goals and success criteria. This example underscores that the approach isn’t limited to just these three roles. It’s crucial to identify which ‘amigos’ need to be involved, those who directly or indirectly impact your project.
This philosophy is what inspired us to create ConformIQ Visualizer. Our tool was created to bring people together and encourage collaboration. With features that for requirement/scenario/features building in a shared space you will have the possibility for visual requirement representation for your requirements in BPMN and automate all your scenarios accordingly.
Feel free to give it a try! Our download is pretty simple and we are available on Atlassian
In conclusion, the Three Amigos approach isn’t just a methodology; it’s a mindset to have more collaborative, transparent, and efficient product development. By using this approach, you will bridge gaps, prevent obstacles, and have products that truly match what was expected by your final users.
CTO, ConformIQ
You can connect with him at alexis.despeyroux@conformiq.com or through Linkedin