I hear from a lot of customers that find visualization a bit overwhelming at first. It’s a new way to explore business needs and hear directly from your stakeholders and customers before costly development begins. iRise is the market leader in visualization. Over 200 customers have improved their processes by visualizing their needs.
So to help you begin your first journey, I’ve decided to put together a getting starting guide for you.
(5min) Browse the iRise Product Overview Video. Take a quick look at visualization and how it can benefit you. There are plenty of customer testimonials and product videos in the Media center if you are interested.
(15min) Download iRise. iRise offers a free fully-functioning 30 day trial of the iRise Professional Edition product. Individual business analysts, interface designers and project managers can leverage powerful visualization techniques already in use by hundreds of corporate customers to get business critical software projects to market faster, with less cost and risk.
(4+hrs) Take the iRise eLearning courses. iRise helps get you started with 2 free eLearning courses. iRise Overview, a self-paced, eLearning course designed to introduce iRise to anyone responsible for selecting and/or using iRise on a project and iRise Explained, a self-paced, eLearning course that covers an introduction to the basic capabilities of iRise and how to use such capabilities to elicit and validate requirements and designs for page flow, page layout, navigation, data, business logic, high fidelity user interfaces and dynamic user interaction using actions, events, alternate views, styles, templates and masters..
(5min) Download the Common Samples iDoc. This iDoc can be opened in your trial version of iRise and gives you a number of useful visualization examples. Copy and paste what you need into your new project. Want to see how high definition, data driven visualizations are done? Use the Common Samples iDoc as a guide. Speed up learning and get your next project kicked off fast.
That’s it, you’ve developed a high level understanding of iRise and visualization. Now you have 29 days left on your trial, get visualizing!
I’ve been here at iRise for nearly a year now. I came onboard because I had never seen a tool like this before. iRise has changed the way I visualize new web site and designs, but I haven’t always had access to such a powerful tool (don’t forget to download a 30-day trial if you haven’t yet). Nope, there was a time in my life I had to use other tools.
Tools like:
Adobe Photoshop - Photoshop has long been my tool of choice. It offered no interaction, but I had plenty of reusable assets to speed my process.
MS Powerpoint - I often used Powerpoint in conjunction with Photoshop to share my vision.
HTML - For me, one of the slower yet powerful ways to visualize
Flash - The slowest way to visualize (for me anyways)
These were fine for visualizing my point, but then I needed a way to collaborate with my stakeholders. For that, I used:
Printouts - Printouts were nice because they let the user write notes that I could then collect and iterate on.
Magnets - Yep, that’s right. I printed out web widgets on magnetic paper and used them on whiteboards. I would model a page of standard widgets, collaborate with the team and then take a quick photo of the result.
These were the only tools I had to get my point across.
Occasionally, we will get the question from companies “what can I do with iRise and how do I do it?”.
Jeesh, where should we begin…you know what, just check out one of our new online courses. These new self-paced eLearning modules can be accessed by anyone with an Internet browser and cover both basic and advanced simulation concepts and techniques using iRise.
There are currently two free courses for you to take:
iRise Overview iRise Overview is a self-paced, eLearning course designed to introduce iRise to anyone responsible for selecting and/or using iRise on a project. This course provides a broad overview of the various components of iRise and how iRise can be used to elicit and validate complete and accurate requirements and designs. After completing the course, participants will have a general understanding of iRise and capabilities to achieve such goals.
iRise Explained iRise Explained is a self-paced, eLearning course that covers an introduction to the basic capabilities of iRise and how to use such capabilities to elicit and validate requirements and designs for page flow, page layout, navigation, data, business logic, high fidelity user interfaces and dynamic user interaction using actions, events, alternate views, styles, templates and masters. The course is full of demonstrations and simulations to provide a rich learning experience for new users as well as experienced users that need a quick refresher. After completing the course, participants will be able to start using iRise on real-life projects.
These are both really well done. Even as an iRise employee, I found some new tips and tricks. Go ahead, check them out.
We are proud to announce the winners in the iRise “Visualize the Prize” Video Commercial Contest. The 15 semi-finalists received more than 4,500 votes during the two weeks of voting that ended on June 20th, and it was a pretty tight race.
The winning entry was “iRise Recipe” submitted by Brian Palatucci of Santa Monica, California. Brian wins $15,000 for his video which depicts a man preparing dinner for his girlfriend while asking the question, “What if there was a way to learn from your mistakes without ever having to make one?”
There were 2 runners-up entries that each claimed a prize of $2,500.
“Foresight is 20/20” by Michael Beeson of Great Falls, Montana – This video looked at iRise from the perspective of a spectacle manufacturer which lost its focus before trying iRise. “It’s made painful hindsight a thing of the past because thanks to iRise, foresight is now 20/20.”
“A Celebration of iRise” by Ron Rogers of Healdsburg, California – This video compared the process of developing company Web sites to the wine industry which doesn’t reveal the finished product until the very end. “Now that calls for a celebration!”
The voting period for the iRise $20k Visualize the Prize Video Commercial contest starts today and runs through Friday June 20th at Midnight.
Help us select the overall winner and two runners-up by going over to the Official Voting page and casting your vote for your favorite video. You may vote once per day, so make sure to visit and vote often. The winner will be the video that captures the most votes over the next two weeks and will take home $15,000. The two runners-up will each get $2,500.
We ended up with 44 entries in the contest, and the iRise panel of judges selected 15 semi-finalists for the public voting part of the contest. There are some very good videos left in the competition and we expect to see an extremely tight race.
We will announce the winners before the end of June. All of the entries are still available for viewing on the iRise Video Contest Entries page.
Thank you to everyone who sent in a video submission, and best of luck to the 15 semi-finalists.
It’s no secret that in the battle to bring effective business software to market on time and on budget, business analysts are on the front line.
What can business analysts do to improve requirements definition practices and make a difference in project outcomes?
What skills do business analysts need?
What roles can they play?
What tools should they use, and what role should those tools play?
Don’t miss this valuable online seminar sponsored by iRise and featuring one of the industry’s leading experts on the subject of requirements definition, Carey Schwaber, a senior analyst from Forrester Research. Carey has talked with hundreds of organizations that use a variety of requirements definition tools and methods. From this experience and accumulated knowledge, she has developed a set of 10 practical tips that you can immediately put into action in your own organization.
If you cannot make the live webcast, the recording will be uploaded to the iRise and Catalyze websites by June 16.
We just rolled out a new Media Center on the iRise website last week. You should definitely check out the Media Center if you’re interested in learning more about how to use iRise and learning what others are saying about iRise. With the Media Center Launch, we have included 9 new Product “QuickTakes” and 5 Product Walk Through videos. You can also check out general videos on iRise along with video testimonials from our customers and partners.
iRise Product “QuickTakes” are short 2-3 minute videos that cover the following topics:
Masters and Templates
The iDoc
Capturing Text Requirements
Managing Feedback
Datasheets
Walk Through Notes
iRise and Collaboration
Building Business Logic
iRise Scenarios
iRise Product Walk Throughs are longer videos and include detailed demos and explanations of iRise:
Getting Started with iRise
Page Components in iRise
iRise Detailed Demo
Stay tuned as we will be addinig more videos to the site in the near future.
Last September, I wrote a blog post about Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” at Carnegie Mellon. Randy had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer and was told he had just months to live.
So I was pleasantly surprised last week when I ran across an article by Randy in Parade.com. Randy noted that “I’m lucky to be living longer than I expected, allowing me more time with my kids. I’ve tried to do unforgettable things with them—such as swimming with dolphins—so they’ll have concrete memories of us and of my love for them.” With his unexpected time and fame, Randy has also written a book (“The Last Lecture”) and devoted time to advocate for pancreatic cancer.
Randy’s article in Parade.com also has the complete video of Randy’s lecture which made these points:
Always have fun
Dream big
Ask for what you want
Dare to take a risk
Look for the best in everybody
Make time for what matters
Let kids be themselves
Everyone should watch or listen to Randy’s lecture. It is truly inspirational.
Take care Randy and I hope the epitath on your tombstone comes true - “Randy Pausch: He Lived 30 Years After a Terminal Diagnosis”.
We are very pleased to announce that the first annual iRise “Visualize the Prize” Commercial Contest starts today and has a total cash prize of $20,000.
Why are we doing this? According to chief marketing officer, Mitch Bishop, “We know we have passionate and creative users, and we want to let them share their passion with us and the broader iRise User community”.
So, what does it take to win? Are you passionate about iRise? Has iRise changed your life or the way you do business? Are you creative? Do you have a great idea for telling the world about the power of visualization? Do you have a great way to motivate others to buy iRise? Help us tell the world by creating a 30 to 60 second commercial about iRise and you could win $15,000.
Make us laugh, make us cry, make us think, make us say “wow, we didn’t think of that!” or “whoa, we didn’t think of that”. You have total creative control to write, cast, direct and shoot your commercial.
We encourage you to tell us how you have used visualization and iRise to create something special. Did you speed time to market, increase innovation, improve user experience or reduce costs? Note that 30% of the judging criteria will be based on the liklihood to motivitate people to buy or try iRise.
What are the contest details? A summary of the contest information has been copied below and is available from the contest website at www.irisevideo.com. Please bookmark the website so you can check back frequently for new video submissions - and don’t forget to vote for your favorites during the voting period in June.
Prizes:
The 1st place winner will receive $15,000
Two Runner-up winners will receive $2,500 each
Dates:
Contest starts Tuesday April 8, 2008
Contest ends Wednesday June 4, 2008
Top 10 semifinalists selected on June 6, 2008
Voting period runs from Friday June 6, 2008 to Friday June 20, 2008
Contest Process:
Create a completely original commercial – 30 to 60 seconds long
We’ve just launched the first in a series of podcasts. After listening to feedback from customers, partners and even our own sales staff, we’ve been able to generate a slate of issues that have become the editorial calendar for the show’s programming. In each episode, we’ll dive deep into the topic with an iRise executive, customer or partner in our extended ecosystem. The show is hosted by David Spark, technology journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions. In this first podcast entitled, “How iRise Works with SAP,” Spark talks with Sherrick Murdoff, iRise’s VP of Business Development and Global Alliances.
The business process behind using iRise to simulate custom SAP and other packaged applications (also see posts Top 10 IT Predictions (#2) and iRise Simulates SAP)
Why visualizing your packaged application (e.g SAP CRM) in iRise takes 1/3 the time of existing prototyping tools
How global systems integrators (e.g. Capgemini) leverage iRise for custom installations in specific verticals (e.g. finance, health care)
We also have a brief position paper on the topic which can be found here.
Subscribe to the podcast now to receive future episodes directly to your iPod or MP3 player.
We’ll be announcing more of these podcasts in coming months and in the meantime, if there’s a topic you feel we could shed some light on, drop me a line at carlas (at) irise.com.
Catalyze Webcast - “10 Tips for Driving Better Project Outcomes”
We’ve just launched the first in a series of 
