Dynamic Workshop Document - Capstone 3Q22

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How well did we do?
How well did we do?

Context for this Capstone Document⁠

, I discussed the Problem Set and the Research Questions associated with this document and the underlying project. Let’s revisit that list and see how well I did.

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Problem Set and Research Questions

Background for choice of document

👉 If we can crack this problem in coda, there may well be a range of viable applications.

The emphasis was on cracking the problem, rather than addressing potential applications, at this time. The challenge of providing suitable layouts for workshop-type discussions of the Business Model Canvas was successfully addressed.

👉 The collaborative nature of coda (think Two-Way Write-Up) is probably ideally suited to support this process.

This assumption was proven - coda is an ideal starting point for asynchronous work.

👉 The sample data is available, coherent and complete, allowing us to focus on the document structure and functionality.

The sample data was easily obtained and well structured for inclusion in the data structures. There was sufficient variety to allow the inclusion of several different business model versions.

Application Challenges

👉 Layout is an issue. The [Business Model] canvas paradigm must be maintained.

A strict, pixel-perfect implementation of the BMC was not achieved. I didn’t invest too much time in exploring the possibilities, but as far as I could determine fixed layout combined with data-driven out seems difficult if not impossible.

However, using the inherent coda functionality and layout possibilities - primarily cards and boards - I achieved a very workable, pleasant and (partly) responsive result.

For me, the (pleasantly) surprising part, was discovering just how easy it was to build functional and aesthetically pleasing results with default functionality. I thought I would need many more, and much more complicated, filters and formulas to do the job. At the end of the day, I got the results I needed with just a few clicks. Sometimes it better to just follow the tool instead of trying to re-invent a square wheel.

Some additional colouring - backgrounds, columns etc - might have added some glamour. I didn’t easily find what I was looking for, so I omitted that step.

👉 Standard coda devices (cards, boards etc.) should be used where possible, for best possible display responsiveness

I used standard coda devices, layouts and methods where possible (see above) and achieved pleasing and usable displays on any of the devices I have tested so far.

Workshop Functionality

👉 The data structures used should support different business models, different version and perhaps multiple iterations in the course of a workshop

Done.

Working with data and data models was easy and really showed the advantages of working with coda rather than Excel. [Disclaimer: I did spent seven years of my life at Oracle, focused mainly on data base analysis and design]. I could do everything with my data that I needed to, without having to re-build my (Star schema) data model.

👉 Different views and layouts are needed

Done - and very impressive it was too.

Firstly, the View concept is inherently very powerful (store once, use everywhere).

Secondly, coda do a wonderful implementation of it, allowing a boring table to be a bunch of cards, a board, a calendar or a graph at the click of a mouse.

Thirdly, the separation of layout controlled per view and data managed document-wide, makes everything intuitively easy. Things happen the way you expect them to.

This Capstone document implements two main views to the workshop user:

The Display Workspace⁠

and

The Creative Workspace⁠

, serving different purposes, using different layouts and controls to support different presentations of the single dat set.

👉 Interactive filtering of the content is a requirement

Done - and it was just so easy!

👉 Content may be added and labelled as a suggestion

Worked to an extent. Adding the content was easy, using an addRow button. The default value for new content (Suggested addition) was correctly assigned, but could be over-written by the user.

This however ist not (yet) an implementation issue, but more an open design question - what exactly do I want to have happen, when and how? - which I will save for a [[later version]] - donated by the double square brackets, here and elsewhere in this text. And no: I didn’t build an Interactive Task List to capture the ToDos. :-)

👉 Support should be provided for voting, with subsequent promotion of additions made

Sorry - this didn’t get done in the time available. Saved for a [[later version]].

Asynchronous Workshops

👉 coda provides support for asynchronous working.

Obviously, a big yes to this one, but again time ran out before i could document the details.

👉 We need to explore, examine or implement support for audit trails.

Saved for a [[later version]].

👉 We need to explore, examine or implement support for version management.

Saved for a [[later version]].

Minor Irritations

Some of the big things didn’t work or weren’t addressed, as described above. In addition, there were a bunch of smaller items that just didn’t work as (I felt) they should.

‘@’ in bulletedList output - how to suppress?

Items.filter([Business Model]=[Private Banking] AND [Building Block]=[Key Resources]).BulletedList()

The formula above, produces produced the output below with leading ‘@’. I never found a reason why the @ appears before each item or how to prevent it. Fixed now - append .Item to force the selection of the content rather than the row identifier. Note also that the output is no longer a link.

Items .filter([Business Model]=[Private Banking] AND [Building Block]=[Key Resources]).Item.BulletedList()

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