Boston Flex Application Incubator Group

Presenting at BFAIG

The Main Scenario

BFAIG's main focus is on helping new programmers to create example Flex applications. We encourage budding programmers to come up with an idea for an example application, then develop it with the help of the group. The A Rough Outline Of The Process section below gives more details on this process.

Other Scenarios

We're also open to other scenarios such as more experienced developers showing projects that they're working on and seeking feedback from their peers, and individuals at any level presenting material that they've found interesting or instructive.

But the suggestion on this page are focused on the Main Scenario. To the degree that your presentation will diverge from that, well, you'll just have to use your creativity and judgment. Have fun. :) We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Preparation & Posting To The Blog

If you're going to present, we strongly encourage you to prepare for the meting by creating a document or documents that will allow prospective attendees to understand what you are trying to do and what kind of input you need, and posting it to our blog.

Examples: If you want general feedback on an idea for an application, post a rough draft of your functional spec. If you can't get some code to work, post the code.

This will allow other members to think about your questions and/or issues before the meeting, formulate their thoughts, and maybe even (if they're feeling especially intrigued or generous) do a bit of research. In short, we'll be more likely to be able to help you.

Posting to the blog will also serve the purpose of letting the group know that you'd like to be a presenter.

You can request blog posting privileges here.

Look At It This Way

You're going to have 30 minutes of the group's time. If you can clearly present something for feedback in five or ten minutes, you'll get a lot more feedback then you'll get if it takes us twenty to twenty-five minutes to understand your question/situation clearly.

A Rough Outline Of The Process

This offers a rough outline of how the incubator process can work, with several caveats:

• We assume that individual presenters will vary their approach as appropriate.
• The outline below assumes that you'll work with BFAIG from the beginning of your project, but we don't really assume that. You are welcome to participate and to get help at any point in the Flex application development process.
• The outline below assumes the use of the "big design up front" approach to application design and implementation, but we don't really assume that. In some cases it may be better to use a more agile iterative approach in which you define and implement a small set of functionality then, once that is working, define and implement another set, etc.

That said, here's one possible approach:

• Write up a functional specification that describes the purpose of your application, defines its target market, and gives a general overview of what it will do and how it will be experienced by its users. Don't go into many technical details at this point. Focus on the user experience. Simple sketches or wireframes showing screen layouts are appropriate, but don't try to define all the details.
• Consider using an agile iterative approach to the entire process outlined here.
• Post your spec to the group blog, present it to the group, and get feedback.
• Revise the spec. Flesh out the user interface. Present it again and get more feedback. Start to discuss technical architecture.
• Write up a technical spec. We won't attempt to outline that process here, but hopefully we'll be assembling a list of resources that can help to guide you.
• Post the technical spec, present it to the group, and get feedback.
• Start writing the code for your project.
• Continue presenting to the group and getting help as your programming progresses. At this point you'll be up to your neck in the Flex framework. There's a lot that you need to learn, and many opportunities to get stuck. We hope to help.
• As the process progresses, post working versions of your application for other members to play with.