Cogini Blog
Articles by process
Incrementally migrating a legacy app to Phoenix
Over the years we have done lots of projects where we migrated an application from one platform to another. We might do this to solve performance issues or to switch to a better technology stack. This can be a challenge when you have a big app that is in production … Read more…
ABC device support and explicit release criteria
One of the most important decisions we make in product development is when to make a release. From a business perspective, it's better to release early and often, with a "minimum viable product". It's also important to define explicit technical quality criteria, or we will waste a lot of resources … Read more…
Anti-pattern: graphical design driven development
Everyone wants to have a beautiful graphical design for their product. The problem comes when graphical design becomes more important than usability and affects the efficiency of the development process. There is an anti-pattern we call "graphical design driven development." The way it goes is that the client starts by … Read more…
Development effort of Android vs iOS
We often need to estimate development projects which have both iOS and Android. It's tempting to say that Android will be the same, but what we have found is that Android takes more effort. The rule of thumb in Silicon Valley is that it takes two to three times the … Read more…
An example of user personas
When we create products, it's important that they help specific users with their issues, not generic users. It's easy to create a list of features, all of which sound good, but don't provide a compelling solution to a specific problem for a specific user. Without that, people won't buy your … Read more…
An example of user stories
User stories are the "Director of Operations" view of the world. They describe step by step how the business works, and what the software needs to do to support it. They should be done after we have defined the user personas, to make sure we are starting from users and … Read more…
It's only a minimum viable product if it hurts
One definition of a startup is "a company in search of a repeatable business model." If we have a clear idea of what the customer needs, what they are willing to buy, and have built the product that satisfies them, then we are no longer a startup, we are an … Read more…
The Four Stages of Santa Claus for software developers
There is a joke, "The Four Stages of Santa Claus": You believe in Santa Claus You do not believe in Santa Claus You are Santa Claus You look like Santa Claus There is an equivalent for software developers when it comes to requirements documents and specs. In the beginning of … Read more…