In the interactive media industry and media industry in
general there are companies also known as agencies who will do work for other
companies. However there are several people involved in the production of this,
ranging from coders to project managers. All of the roles are important and are
required to create a better finished product. Each role manages different aspects
of the project.
To begin a pitch for an idea for an application several
people are needed to predict the outcome of the application, for example a
designer to make drafts of the finished product and other roles and people
would do other aspects of the product such as planning and technical details as
to how it will work. Some companies will put out an advert asking for anybody
with an idea to bring it forward and pitch it to them, or a company can
approach an agency and request them to design and make a product for them. The
developers/designers would then pitch the idea to the client via a presentation
with mock ups, ideas and functionality notes on how the product will work if
needed. This would be displayed to the clients via a presentation, with the key
employees present to explain how the product will look, feel and work to give
the client a full idea of how the finished product will be. Assuming this goes
well and the client is impressed the agency will then have to develop the
product
The project manager will create a project specification
noting the important details. The project manager will also allocate resources
to it, for example allocating people to a specific task. The project manager
overlooks all the other workers and manages them, setting deadlines and having
discussions with them to help relations between them and improve workflow. The
project manager needs to be an organized person to be able to manage the
resources, people and keep it all on a schedule. The manager also oversees all
work and makes sure it does a by a certain deadline, because of this the
person will also need good time management skills.
There would need to be a document which states what the
finished product is required to do e.g. certain features might be wanted by the
client which would have to be met ( for example if an application had to do a
certain feature, such as auto save every X amount of minutes. ) This is done by
the client and the head developer to then create a list of requirements of
which will need to be incorporated into the product. This is done with the
client to get exactly what they want from the product, also making it easier to
create.
The designers make plans and make visual content for the
product. They may do this before the pitch to show the possible client what the
intentions of the product is and to better explain what the outcome might be
like. Many larger companies such as AQKA
(Developed the Xbox Menu) do this to predict what the finished product will look
like and to show at the pitch. It can also help the client see the intentions
of the project, thus helping the group get possible employment. The designers
would also create rough drafts to help the coders and to help develop further
ideas for designs.
The head coder would create a document stating what the
program needs to do for the coders to work towards; this is based off the
specification and functional requirements documents. It is created to help the
other codes create a product which can be understandable and easier to create.
There would also be somebody in charge of databases and such to keep track of
things such as budgets, time and information that would be stored in a
database.
The company would test the product internally initially to
find and fix any immediate bugs such as crashes. This is known as inDev (In
development) I would then move to Alpha then later, Beta. It is common for companies
to release playable betas for new games so that the public can play it and find
more bugs and provide feedback. This can be done via private methods or
completely public. Some companies give out beta keys to certain people, or
require users to sign up for something. Most of the time users who are participating
will have to sign and agree to a non-disclosure agreement, meaning they cannot
spread information about it openly and publicly.
Although before the actual release of the product there will
be allocated testers, who will be given a list of everything the product does,
they then go along and check it does everything. The coders then fix any errors
and it is released.
Before deployment of the product it will be checked by the
client and more testers to assure that it fits the as stated before
specifications and briefs. Before launch there may be an advertising or
promotional campaign to attract more attention to the project. This might also
be part of the agencies’ responsibilities. If so then more items would be made,
for example banners for the product. The project manager would have collected
all the preproduction pieces of work and kept the others to their deadlines. By
this point the product should be virtually bug and glitch free from the help of
extensive testing.
