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Basis of the Application Development and Support Methodology

GrayCell's Application development and maintenance methodologies are designed with inputs from best industry practices, and are blend of elements from traditional waterfall and modern agile methodologies. Though the exact content of deliverables will vary, this methodology applies to both Custom Applications as well as for BI Applications.

They are developed on deep understanding of conflicting pressures faced by business and IT teams as explained here:

1. The Project Trade-Off Triangle

There are three factors that need to be constantly balanced during application development and maintenance:

  • Resources (people and money)
  • Schedule (time)
  • Features (scope)

The three are intertwined; the relationship can be explained with the following triangle:

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Each factor is a side of the triangle; changing one necessitates changes in the other two.

2. Trade Off Matrix - how to balance the three factors

The Business Users and IT teams must develop an understanding of a "contract" between them. The best way is to FIX a particular factor, CHOSE another factor and ADJUST the third factor, as expressed in following sentence:

Given fixed _______, we will chose a ________ and adjust _______ as necessary.

   
Fixed
Chosen
Adjustable
         
Resources  
X
   
Schedule    
X
 
Features      
X

The realities of the projects must drive the selection of which factor is fixed, which is chosen and which is adjustable. Some possible scenarios are:

  • Given fixed resources, we will choose a schedule and adjust the feature set as necessary.
  • Given fixed resources, we will choose a feature set and adjust the schedule as necessary.
  • Given a fixed feature set, we will choose a level of resources and adjust schedule as necessary.
  • Given a fixed feature set, we will choose a schedule and adjust resources as necessary.
  • Given a fixed schedule, we will choose a level of resources and adjust the features set as necessary.
  • Given a fixed schedule, we will choose a feature set and adjust resources as necessary.

It is essential that the team and the customer are completely clear on the tradeoff matrix for the project.

3. Incremental and Iterative Development

Application Development is a series of iterations, each lasting 4-12 weeks that incrementally adds the features needed by Business. The functionality having maximum business value and riskiest (that may affect IT architecture choices) get built first.

Image

Development and Support Methodology

Image

Phase
Activity
Deliverable
Responsibility
Envision
Identify requirements, prioritize and finalize scope, identify and assess risks.
Vision (Scope) Document,Risk Assessment Document
Business, IT Development
Plan

Develop functional specifications, develop project plan and schedule

Functional specificationsProject Plan
IT Development, Business
Develop
Develop test cases, code, and installation scripts. Unit test code.
Unit and System Test Cases; Unit tested source code, executables; installation scripts
IT Development
Stabilize
Test under realistic environment conditions; fix reported defects. Alpha, Beta, Pre-production, User acceptance testing.
Test Results, gold release, release notes.
IT Development
Deploy
Deploy executables and components, transition data and configuration as needed, train and obtain final customer approvals, close iteration Operations and support information systems, procedures; metrics gathering, knowledge base update IT Operations, IT Development

 

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