Mental Models for Technology

Simple metaphors, analogies, and similes to help with cognition, reasoning, and decision-making in a complex technology landscape

Transcript

1. 1 Mental Models For Technology Simple metaphors, analogies and similes to help with cognition, reasoning and decision-making in a complex technology landscape
2. 2 Unrealistic expectations come from flawed mental models.
3. 3 Metaphors can be powerful •Turn abstract concepts into concrete examples •Draws attention and trigger emotions •Easier to engage with because they are familiar
4. 4 If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein
5. 5 Project Requirements & Scope Being Able To Sell Lemonade
6. 6 I want to sell lemonade. Requirements Wireframe
7. 7 Placeholder How long will it take and what does it cost? - Stakeholder
8. 8 Stand Shop Factory Scope of Work
9. 9 What the client expected.
10. 10 •Shows multiple ways to tackle the same problem. •Explains why estimates and cost can vary so much. •The importance of details and proper definition. •Why changes to a project are not always simple. •It can be expended to include multiple flavors, distribution, franchising. It’s important to define the scope just like a software project.
11. 11 Scalability vs. Performance The Checkout Example
12. 12 My store needs to handle 10,000 users - Stakeholder
13. 13 How fast can a cashier handle a purchase? Performance
14. 14 How many cashiers can I have? Scalability
15. 15 Time and user flow are critical for load testing. Concurrency
16. 16 500 users Store Hours (9am - 9pm) Checkout Load Testing Average Checkout 2 minutes Patience Timeout: 10 Minutes
17. 17 2 Cashiers Can handle 720 users within that period. If traffic is spread evenly we have a good buffer of 220 users.
18. 18 Placeholder Can we handle a spike of 300 users without hitting their patience limit? How many users of those 300 we will be able to checkout?
19. 19 The requirement was to handle 500 users. My store could barely handle 10! - Stakeholder
20. 20 Technical Debt Business Loan
21. 21 Placeholder Technical Debt - The incremental cost and loss of agility to a company as a result of prior decisions that were made to save time or money when implementing new systems or maintaining existing ones.
22. 22 These decisions cost. You are creating debt by taking out loan so you can pay the interest. The goal should be to pay the interest while paying the principal.
23. 23 Placeholder Interest is now paid with development time. We should have a plan to pay interest + some of the principal
24. 24 If a business continues to take out loans and not pay back. Eventually it will go out of business.
25. 25 This takes too long. I need it in half of the time. - Stakeholder
26. 26 How many women would take to have a baby in 4.5 months.
27. 27 Not everything can be done in parallel
28. 28 Quality & Polish Building a Car
29. 29 All I want is a car that fits a family of 4, that I can use daily. Give me that and I will be happy. - Stakeholder
30. Done. What client expected.
31. What they received.
32. ` 32 What are some of the mental models you use?