Value

Abstract

Software development managers often balk at including a conceptual design phase in development. “How long will that take? Won’t it slow us down? I don’t like the idea of spending two or three weeks developing a conceptual model — let’s just start designing the screens so our implementors can get coding ASAP!”

Developing a task-focused conceptual model for an application that all major stakeholders agree on does indeed take a few weeks. However, that investment usually pays off handsomely by clarifying, focusing, and speeding later development steps. In other words, developing a conceptual model is not simply an additional cost for a project; it produces outputs that are useful or even necessary for later steps, and that therefore can save development time and cost.