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Why?

Have others already tackled the problem? Incorporating your peers’ knowledge can seriously speed things up.

How?

Search for the problem you are wrestling with in an online community you know you can trust. Start your quest as specifically as possible. Ask questions if you appear to be the first to present this problem.

Ingredients

• Input into an online community of peers, like Stack Overflow.
• A critical view: even if many people point you in the same direction, it may not be the ideal solution for your specific situation.
• A thorough understanding about the proposed solution (do not just copy/paste).
• A sharing attitude: do not hesitate to share your findings with the community.

In practice

Using community input is standard practice for developers. Even if others have been creating things that differ greatly from what you are doing, they still may have encountered problems that you are dealing with. It can save you a lot of time and annoyance.

Phase(s) of use

In the following project phase(s) community research can be used:

• Design