There is a widespread illusion that programming is the only valuable role when developing an application. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The following roles come to mind (and that's not the whole list). -Product manager: gathers, clarifies, and prioritizes requirements. Gathers, clarifies and organizes specifications. (with Project Manager) keeps a high signal/noise ratio in bug databases. -Project manager: works with engineers/designers/etc... to determine the cost, risk, duration of each task, the list of people who can execute each task, the dependencies between tasks. Determines the overall cost/duration/scope of various development scenarios and dynamically adapts the predictions based on that data coming in. (with Project Manager) keeps a high signal/noise ratio in bug databases. -Writer: user documentation, and technical documentation (if you feel like diving into the technical world). -Tester: runs existing test scenarios or "ad-hoc" tests. A common diving board toward the technical world by trying to become a QA engineer. -User Experience: a wide range of roles: defines the UI metaphors, the flow of the application, the general and precise layout of the various screens/windows/dialogs/etc..., the colors, bitmaps and sounds used in the UI, the wording guidelines. Writes/Translates the text for the user interface. Deals with accessibility. -PR: anything that's externally visible: blog, web site, user groups, press releases, demos... -Finance: there's money involved in projects of all sizes, even if it's only about putting ads on a web site and having T-shirts printed. -Program director: drives all tasks that require cooperation and coordination between multiple people/groups, both inside and outside the project. A good role for someone with a vision and the energy to drive it. If you have an idea and would like to push it further, that's probably your role, but you need to realize that you'll need to convince many people. In small projects, that's also the "catch-all" person for tasks that don't obviously fall in anyone else's lap, or who deals with tasks that are too small to be assigned to anyone. You could have a project with a Program Director who also takes care of all the tasks I've mentioned above, and a single engineer taking care of all the technical tasks. JBQ On Jun 26, 4:51 pm, Mongo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What can non-programmers do to develop application ideas. Hook up with > code writers, pitch to an existing company (which ones), learn to > program (I don't see learning how to program in my near future). > > Any ideas. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
