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We have created a web application. We need to demo this application to our senior management. They don't understand the technology.

We are creating a power point presentation for this. How much technical details should we include in the presentation? What should be those details (for example, what the front end is used, which db is used, etc.)?

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How much time do you have for your presentation? – knut Oct 29 '12 at 10:02
@knut Business people are taking care of the presentation. I just need to provide some technical bullet points to be part of that presentation just to give some overview. – anything Oct 29 '12 at 10:04
@anything, Is the development-cycle and/or methodology already included? – superM Oct 29 '12 at 10:22
@superM Nopes. Its not. – anything Oct 29 '12 at 10:24
@anything, I've edited my answer to include that too )) – superM Oct 29 '12 at 10:33

closed as not constructive by gnat, jk., Steven A. Lowe, dasblinkenlight, Walter Oct 29 '12 at 12:32

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4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

You needn't include too many technical details. If you do, your audience will be bored in the best case and they would think its rude in the worst.

I think what you need to do is tell about the choice of the technology without going into details. For example, you could explain that you have chosen DB1 and not DB2, because DB1 performs better for that case. Then, if someone is interested why, you would explain it in a few words.

What would probable be more interesting is the development methodology _ waterfall, extreme programming, etc. This is more comprehensible for non-technical people and is a key point in software development. You could briefly describe the methodology and then represent how you used it.

Here is an article about how non-technical management looks at software development.

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I disagree about the development methodology used. This has nothing to do with demoing a new web application imo. – Florian Margaine Oct 29 '12 at 10:58
@Florian Margaine, I would agree if the demo was for users, but in this case if the OP is to include some technical details, it makes sense to include info about development methodology. – superM Oct 29 '12 at 11:15
As you rightfully say, it's technical details, not project management details :-) it's a different beast altogether. – Florian Margaine Oct 29 '12 at 11:30
up vote 2 down vote

If it's just a bullet point list that you have to present, show them the technology stack used. For example, java, spring, oracle, etc. All in a single bulletted list.

With each bullet, I'd explain, in business terms, why you chose this or this technology. "Our team knew this framework technology so there was no training cost needed", "it handled this specific case better", etc.

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up vote 0 down vote

ask your management what they want, but probably none, focus on what the software does, not how it does it.

They may be more interested in other things like the development time/cost (to give them confidence that they will be making money). A graph of bugs found/fixed per cycle (give them confidence that the software is now stable)

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1  
I wouldn´t present number of bugs found/fixed – BЈовић Oct 29 '12 at 10:08
@BЈовић not a single number but a graph is useful to show that the discovery rate for new issues is declining (this is something my management often want) – jk. Oct 29 '12 at 10:11
@jk. The ppt will have details on what software does. But saying java , spring , oracle is used will make sense in ppt? – anything Oct 29 '12 at 10:11
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That is weird, because that number does not represent anything. It can say your programmers were sloppy, or requirements were not clear, or at least that is how I would interpret it. But it would indicate a flaw in the SW development process. I would not like to be in your shoes when telling this numbers – BЈовић Oct 29 '12 at 10:15
@anything I honestly think that telling your senior management that you used java and spring will just bore them. oracle might be more interesting to mention as it implies licensing costs, but ask who ever you need to produce the slide for. – jk. Oct 29 '12 at 10:20
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up vote 0 down vote

Explain the technical parts in business speak ie scalability becomes the ability to service more clients and open source becomes just free software.

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