Agile HMI Development

Table of content

As the new Content Manager, I was extremely excited to hold my first ever Witekio Webinar!

The event (in partnership with Qt) was on the importance of agile methodology when developing HMIs (Human Machine Interfaces) for products.

Apart from a few blunders on my end (e.g. I forget my name ) the session was a success.  

So much so, that I had to write down my 4 top takeaways to help you catch up in minutes! 

Top 4 Takeaways

1) Agile methodology really does lead to more success 

Of course I am going to say that (it was the whole point of the webinar) but we do have the facts to back it up.  

According to a CHAOS study of over 10,000 projects, you are up to 3x more likely to have a successful resolution using an agile methodology than you are with waterfall.  

The Witekio team suggest this agile success rate is down to continuously improving and challenging the end-product as you go. So instead of setting a plan in stone, you have the ability to rework, redo and improve.  

2) There is no one size fits all when it comes to agile

Agile has a host of different methodologies, so sticking to just one is not the most effective way.  

Our team is increasingly using mixed agile methodologies to maximize project efficiency and achieve the best results. 

Whatever methodology you choose for your project, use it as a guide only, as the process should be tweaked depending on your project and outcome needs. If you inflexibly stick to all the approved steps, you might as well be using the waterfall approach (and we’ve all seen how successful that is!). 

The agile methodologies that Witekio use are:  

_x000D_
“The most important thing is to work as one team toward the same goal.” Grégoire Lanaud – Witekio

3) You can put glitter on poop, but it’s still poop 

Yes, you want the product to look good, but if you solely focus on how your GUI will look and work, you will overlook or underestimate the more important backend aspects. 

Without the bottom of the iceberg – your product will sink.  

Ensure you dedicate enough resources to the core of your GUI development and functionality – not just the UI (User Interface). 

Basically, if you’re trying to ensure agile methods for the front, you’ll need to do the same for the backend as it is far less defined at the start of the project and will incur more changes all-round.

Witekio project experience finds that two-thirds of the project development time should be spent on the backend. So put away that glitter, you’re not fooling anyone when it comes to actually using the end product.  

4) Design and Development need help!  

Typically, a designer oversees the way your UI screens should look and interact. These UI/UX specifications then need to be reproduced by the developer.  

Unfortunately, due to miscommunication, device limitations or technical issues, a loop of iterations between design and development then begins – slowing down your time to market.  

This is due to designers using tools such as Photoshop, and developers using languages such as python – they do not mix well (or at all). 

Using a tool such as the Qt Design Studio will stop this miscommunication by generating designs into Qml, which the developer will then be able to understand and recreate on the device. 

Enabling all the team to collaborate easily will enable agility.  

Webinar Overview:

Event: Bring Agility to the development of your HMIs 

Duration: 54 minutes

Presenters:  

  • Gregoire Lanaud, Business Development Manager – Witekio
  • Emmanuel Penzes, Solution Engineer – Qt 

Topics: 

  • What agile methodology delivers when developing an HMI on an embedded target 
  • Why you should look beyond the GUI  
  • How to leverage a framework like Qt to ensure the right people and organizational methodology are used 
  • The functionality of tools like Qt Creator and Qt Design Studio 
  • Ways you can accelerate your TTM and facilitate industrialization 

Webinar Timestamps:

To make extracting knowledge as easy as possible, simply click on the topic you’re most interested in and we’ve queued up the video at the right time for you!

Introductions

Agile overview

Why you need agile methodology when developing your HMI

How Qt tools can help your Designer and Developer with agile

Qt UI development tool demonstration

The importance of your HMI backend

Why does Witekio use frameworks such as Qt?

HMI development backend demonstration

Conclusion

Webinar questions

Full Video:

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