iRise Software

I cannot speak highly enough of iRise. It was not only intuitive for functions, but training was easy! My only two comments would be:

I would love to see an eyedropper for color adjustments
The widget library was hard to navigate in the beginning. After using it for some time, I knew where to find pieces.

DEFINITELY get some mentor time! It increased my skill set 10x!

Pros

Very intuitive!

Cons

Need to add an eye-dropper tool, and update the widget search

Advice to Others

Spend the $$$ to do the Mentor 1:1!

If you are looking for a tool that can transform the way you work, then you need to look into iRise. You can use iRise as a stand alone tool but if needed, it does integrate with other software like Jira and GitHub.
Using iRise I am able to bring a visual component that is wanted and pair it with the documentation that is needed and display it all on the same screen. Beyond marrying the visual and document components, iRise gives me the ability to add action functionality to my prototypes. I am now able to have my Business Owners and End Users use the prototype like they would in production. This helps to keep our visions, stylistically and functionally in sync. We are also able to find issues with layouts, process, and function before wasting valuable time on development.
Communication is key to any project and iRise enables us to collaborate within the tool. Anyone, I give review access to can comment and tie the comments right to the prototype elements and screens or the requirements. The best part, They don't need an iRise license to gain this Reviewer access!
Epics, Features, User Stories and requirements can all me managed within iRise. There are attributes that you can add that aid in managing the backlog and planning sprints and more.
If you do need a printout of your prototype and accompanying documentation iRise has a reporting tool with several templates that you can use. You also have the option of creating your own reports.
I will advise that I am an iRise a novice. I just started to use the software three short weeks ago. In that short period of time, I have requested assistance from iRises, support staff on several occasions and in every instance they have been prompt in their chat response time- typically within 15min of my starting a session, and have been courteous and incredibly helpful. A great customer experience must be one of their closely held values because it shows in every interaction I have ever had with their staff.
Overall, I have found that it is a relatively easy tool to use. I would still recommend taking the training course that is offered to have a good understanding of how it works. The requirements side of iRise could use some more attention in terms of customizing the display format to fit more users but that's a minor thing. I suggest you try iRise yourself. They have a generous trial period and it gives you full access to everything iRise has to offer, including their amazing support staff.

Pros

Being able to create a prototype that looks and functions like it would in production. Being able to create and tie my requirements to the prototype for demo and development.

Cons

Requirements not being able to have a more structured format with bullet points and numbered lists. Not being able to display requirements nested under a User Story in reporting or on the requirements management screen.

Advice to Others

Try it.

Our company has been using iRise for about a year. In my role as a business analyst/project manager in IT, I work with business teams as well as designers and technical IT teams. iRise gives us the ability to capture requirements, create prototypes and link the two together very quickly, without needing a lot of technical know how. We are still working in our requirements/prototyping phase and have yet to work through exporting or integrating with other systems.

We are currently creating a library of custom widgets for a pilot project to speed up our prototyping creation and feedback loops. This has been a little challenging and is stretching my abilities, but the customer support and tutorials are helping me tremendously. The ability to create custom widgets is a huge plus due to the many systems we maintain and want to bring into iRise in the future.

iRise's customer support via chat is the best I have seen with a software tool. If I don't get an immediate response, I get an email with follow-up within the day. There have been several instances where the feature I was needing was not yet available, but on the product roadmap. I am hopeful this level of customer support continues as the company grows.

We are also working towards integration with other tools in our SDLC, and the general feedback from our team has been positive. We are looking for more features to do everything we want to do, but have workarounds where needed. The addition of guides this past release has been extremely helpful, as an example. I am looking forward to continuing to learn more about iRise, try out new features, and continue to provide more value to our IT and business teams along the way. There are some features that are only available in the Studio version of the tool, but iRise has been working on getting them into the Definition Center tool, which is my primary tool.

Pros

Ease of use, organization, and flexibility to create multiple types of "documentation" in one tool - like prototypes and process maps. I can link screens to steps in a business process as well as link specific requirements to a function within a screen. Demonstrating the functionality of software is a primary goal, but there is also a guide within the reviewing/playing function if a prototype is not completely hooked up. I also like that we can collaborate in real time on a project with authors, editors and viewers. The customer support is amazing!

Cons

It seems to run a little slow when there are a lot of widgets on one screen/page, like when I am doing process mapping.

Advice to Others

Seeing is believing with iRise. You have to get in and look around and create. There is always something new to discover, and the company likes feedback on new features.

I love iRise! We have a strong custom development business unit, and since implementing iRise we reduced our loss rate by 55% in the year we implemented the platform. Our prospects get to see what they're getting, and they get to engage in the building of the solution, so there's a good faith understanding to purchase the solution at the end.

If you sell software, you need this tool! They really should be mentioning this in The Sprint Book as a rapid prototype tool.

Pros

The rapid prototyping interface. The requirements capture. The interaction with customers and prospects. The communication transition to development.

Cons

Price point compared to Balsamiq, but iRise is more of a SMB to Enterprise tool.

Advice to Others

Get it!