A Proposal of Practices, Processes and Models That Enable Innovation Potential

Abstract

Innovation is neither predictable nor guaranteed within a solution development project. Novel ideas can appear during any level of work, whether high-level design or in code algorithms. As design innovation is a creative action, this paper proposes a vision of related practices, processes and modeling ideas that enable innovation to potentially happen. The practices are mostly mental techniques for a designer to use which help to maintain an open mind to solution possibilities. The process approaches are based on and support progress within a flexible, incremental and iterative methodology that can respond to new ideas. The modeling technique ideas strive to support the clear communication of understanding and the evolution of the design through multiple alternatives. The proposals suggested are rooted in some successes from actual industry projects over the years, but can benefit from further research and empirical evaluation.