iRise Online by OneSpring

OneSpring is hiring!

OneSpring, the leading Visualization firm has current openings for exciting new roles, Visualization Analyst & Visualization Designer.

Visualization Analysts and Designers are a new kind of consultant. In other organizations they might be known as "User Experience Professionals" or "Business Analysts". Because our approach combines the best practices of both disciplines, we need those who understand, appreciate, and have a passion for the value of User Experience and vice-versa. We are looking for talented/high energy individuals looking to take on new challenges. As such, you will be responsible for gathering and documenting high-level and detailed functional requirements for large modernization efforts for the federal government. You will be part of a team of other business analysts and user experience professionals working on this task.

We are looking for someone with 5-7 years of Business Analyst experience or User Experience Design. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are a must. Must be strong at gathering and documenting user and functional requirements and have a solid foundation of best practices around these disciplines. The ideal candidate will be proficient in iRise and any other products used to define software requirements. Must be able to facilitate JAD sessions and have an understanding of the various software development methodologies; including, RUP, Agile, and Waterfall. Business Process Management BPM background is a plus, but not required.

To apply please visit http://www.onespring.net/aboutus_careers.php or send your resume directly to jobs@onespring.net

Datasheets and the value they add

I'm sure there will be plenty of blackash on this one but trust me when I state datasheets can be more trouble than their worth. Over the last several years we have nearly stopped using datasheets as we find the work to maintain them is simply not worth the gain. Instead we've delivered hundreds of demos and visualizations with merely clipboards and have found nearly if not identical end results. This is not to say we've entirely done away with them as there are certain cases where they become extremely vauable.

As we train several hundred users per year this is one topic that often is learned by trial and error. Many new users of iRise tend to over visualize thus making poor use of it's most powerful feature "the instant ah-ha" moment. more to come as my iPhone battery is dying, stay tuned.

iRise Find References Feature

Earlier today I was drafting functional requirements for a portlet within my visualization.  The portlet was created in iRise as a Master.  In order to ensure I captured requirements for the portlet that considered every instance of use in the visualization, I used the iRise Find References feature.  Here's how it works:

Locate the object to which you need to find all instances of use; in my case, a portlet.  Right click on the object and select 'Find References'. 

  

iRise will present a list of all locations in the visualization that contain the object.

 

The Find References feature works not only for Masters, but also:

• Scenarios
• Pages
• Decisions
• Clouds
• Datasheets

When iRise presents the list of References, you can quickly navigate to each location by selecting a location and clicking 'Jump To...".

Making Drop-down Menus Required in Forms

How do you make drop-down menus required in iRise?  Unfortunately, iRise does not give you this ability built-in, but here is a work-around:

1. On your form submit button, create an identical alternate view.  One view will be for when the drop-down has been filled out, and the default will be for when the drop-down has not been filled out.
2. On your drop-down menu, set up "On Change" Switch View Actions for when a value has been entered, and one for when no value has been entered. 
3. When a value has been entered in the drop-down, switch the form submit button view to "good". 
4. When no value has been entered in the drop-down, switch the form submit button view to "missing drop down". 

Depending on how you're displaying error messages, you could string together actions to display them.  If you have multiple required drop-down menus you'll need to create unique form submit buttons multiple views for each.  

It's not ideal, but it's one approach to it. 

The rebirth of iriseonline.com

After a long 18 month hiatus we are dusting off the first and at one time, the only resource dedicated to the iRise platform.  With this rebirth you'll find more content as a number of OneSpring employees and contractors will be contributing tips, asking questions and providing insight into their perspective of iRise and Visualization.  

In addition to iriseonline we have launched a sister blog over at www.jointapplicationmodeling.com which will focus more on the process of our trademarked approach to delivering visualization services and our JAM Session™, our JAM Lab™ and the evolution of the Visualization Maturity Model.

Thank you for visiting and we welcome your comments,

Scott McDowell
Managing Partner
www.onespring.net

Hidden Form Elements and Character Field Limits

As part of our new iRise Tips series, here are a few pointers related to hidden table elements:

Tip #1: Hidden elements of a table can really mess up the vertical spacing of a visualization page.  In order to maintain some order be sure to check your row height attributes.  Its important to set this field to null (empty) for each element of the page that is being hidden as iRise seems to distribute the spacing for these hidden elements throughout the rest of the page.  We've found that setting this to null produces a more consistent result.

Tip #2: Try to avoid spacer rows in hidden sections for the above reason.  If they are absolutely necessary, try slowly increasing the row height until you have the results that you want with, hopefully, minimal impact to your page.

Tip #3: If you find your text field elements in a form wrap to a new line unexpectedly, its likely that they are set to a null/empty field length.  Try expanding the width of your text area slightly using your mouse, and the handle elements on the text area, and this should resolve your issue.