A Customer-Driven Architecture for Banks - Learning from iPhone

Glenbrook Partners discusses a recent report from Javelin Strategy and Research that elevates awareness to the changing behavior and expectations among electronic banking customers in the "iPhone-era". Javelin explains that these customers will tend to be much more interactive with their financial institutions and will insist on a greater level of control and visibility. In some ways, this report speaks to the shift underway in application design, but it applies that transformation specifically to the needs of online banking. All-in-all, this is another example of how consumers are (appropriately) shifting into a position of even stronger influence over the applications we deliver.

Check it out at A Customer-Driven Architecture for Banks - Learning from iPhone

Mistake Proofing and The Role of QA

Roland Cuellar at LitheSpeed recently highlighted some of the characteristics of the QA role and the importance of rethinking how this role integrates throughout the development process to add even more value. Taking a position similar to what I propose in "One Team - Developers and QA" (http://blog.softwarearchitecture.com/2007/04/one-team-developers-and-qa.html), Roland borrows from some common "Lean" practices and encourages a deeper relationship with development and a focus on keeping defects out of the product right from the start. Specific recommendations include more detailed and interactive communications/partnership and the elevation of test cases to first-class requirements.

Check it out at Mistake Proofing and The Role of QA