So as most of you know, Chip and Paul are both on panel discussions at Mix this year.  Chip's panel was made up of people who are actually using these tools now or who have experiences with them to share.  Again, most of the dialogue was surrounding workflow... source control, collaboration, roles definitions, culture shifts etc.  Again there were agencies on the panel who are utilizing this new role of "integrator" in their process and they spoke to how this works for them... and when it doesn't.

As I said before, I'm torn a bit between the concept of us adapting to the shifting needs of our industry by roles definition or by process. This discussion made me a little less skeptical about this new type of role and to a certain degree I almost feel as though it's semantics more than anything.  I asked them afterwards why they think it's better to add another person to the mix versus just having designers and developers communicate better and more often.  Their explanation pretty much mirrored how I've worked on some of my projects at Tribal.  Sometimes they do think it's a good idea and sometimes they don't.  If a team needs this kind of person to translate and bridge the gap between design and development then it works great but if a team is made up of people who all kind of 'get it' and communicate well then they let them work without the integrator... In a nutshell, there is no totally baked process.  They've added some options to their process and use them when they've identified them as necessary - very much like we do.

Another interesting question came from an ad agency in London - "There seems to be a culture shift in using these new tools (designers working in Silverlight v. Flash, PCs instead of Macs, etc...) Is it really worth the effort?"  The point he was making essentially was that his flash designers and developers are really talented and produce fantastic work so why should he have to retrain them on a new tool set that produces a pretty similar product.  The answer was similar to how the other agencies were referencing the use of their integrator role - These tools ADD to your options, they don't replace.  The panelists all agreed that there really is no reason to give up the current tools and become Microsoft-centric.  If a project requirement, process requirement or a designer's concept calls for something that these tools can do or enhance then they use them.... and if not, then they don't.

- Nicole