Project Management - Quality, Cost and Timing the Key to Success

Codel Software manage projects using industry approved techniques and work to a set of best practices that are aligned to the types of project and technologies that are being used. We work seamlessly alongside your staff to ensure that our team is a perfect extension of your internal resource.

Many of our projects use the Rational Unified Process, with the process adjusted where necessary to meet the project complexities

Inception

• The Inception phase will establish the baseline for the remainder of the project. It focuses on understanding the project scope and obtaining enough information to begin the elaboration phase. Objectives of the Inception phase are:
• Producing a “Vision Document” which establishes a common understanding of the motivation for building the solution and a high-level definition of the solution itself.
• Establishing a set of prioritised base-lined requirements, based on the “actors” involved in the solution and the use cases – a short description which describes how the actors interact with the solution. These are only high level descriptions which become more detailed during the project.
• Reviewing and refining the project plan.
  

Elaboration
Elaboration is the first phase that is tackled in “iterations”, where each iteration focuses on a achieving a set of objectives for a subset of the functionality of the solution. (Note: in large projects Inception is often tackled using multiple iterations, but in projects of this size a single iteration is most appropriate). Elaboration iterations focus on:

• Gaining detailed understanding of requirements by refining use cases and prototyping functionality where necessary.
• Designing, implementing and validating the (baseline) architecture, focused specifically on the “building blocks required to support the project requirements based on the use cases.
  

Construction
Construction is usually the most time-consuming phase since it focuses on iterative design and implementation of all use cases; either use cases that were partially addresses during Elaboration or use cases that were not addressed at all. The primary tactical objective is to accelerate the production of high-quality code based on discoveries made during Elaboration. Usual objectives of Construction are:

• Further refining use cases if required.
• Minimising development costs by refining the development process and tools used
• Developing the complete solution that can be deployed to the final user community
• Dealing with change
• The ultimate objective of the Construction phase is a pilot release of the solution along with supporting test results, technical documentation and draft training material (based on project scope).
  

Transition
The focus of the Transition phase is to ensure that the solution is fit for purpose; it focuses on the fine tuning of functionality, performance and quality. Transition objectives include:

• Beta testing, including “fine tuning” activities like minor bug fixing, enhancements for performance and stability.
• User training to ensure that both users and technical/administrative personnel are self-reliant
• Production data migration
• Production deployment
• Project review to ensure to evaluate the end solution against the criteria set out in the Project’s Vision, and to potentially begin the Inception for future project phases.
  

The most important measure of project success is Customer Satisfaction