Hal Helms

Founder of the Fusebox methodology, http://www.fusebox.org/

Hal Helms gave an interesting talk about the Fusebox process, which he helped develop. This method generally takes up to 70% of the project's effort, resulting in a prototype of the front-end that looks exactly like the finished application, with functionality limited to the client side. The objective is to discover exactly what the client expects from the application, and how they want it to look. By doing this, clients can change requirements and the front end of their application without resulting in major changes to the application. Once the client is satisfied with how the application will run and look, the development of the back-end will start. This process allows for changes to be made easily and by the time development begins there is a much clearer understanding of how the application should be implemented. This methodology works best for web-based projects where the prototype can easily be used in the actual application.