Our Process

Inquiry
Early discussions
Formal proposal

A project starts with a client contact through our web form. Early discussions are required to establish a general scope for the project and provide enough information for the development of a proposal document.

In-Depth discovery
Formal specification

A proposal contains an overview of the project, budget and timeline. Often, that is enough to begin development. For larger projects, a proposal will contain only a broad overview, budget and a timeline for a more detailed discovery process required to create a comprehensive project specification providing more depth about the subsequent development phase.

Your approval required

Beyond any discovery costs you approve, there is no obligation to move forward unless you approve of the design plan.

Agile development process

Guided by a proposal/specification, we begin building out the solution, working organically and with close involvement of key client staff members to ensure expectations are met.

Flexible templates
Open-ended code libraries
Modular architecture
Standardized techniques

Drawing on past experience, new solutions are constructed using proven templates, code snippets, libraries, and modules assembled, customized and expanded using standard practices derived from decades of experience.

Inline testing
Constant communication
Regular reviews

Components are meticulously tested throughout the development process. Regular status reports, development reviews and plateau-testing ensure the project stays on track to meet or exceed expectations.

Preliminary installation
Real-world test environment

Development is not the end of the process. Before we consider a project complete, we will work with you during a testing phase to see how it performs within the environment of your actual workflow complete with the day to day challenges with which it must cope. During this time, we will review the solution’s functionality to insure that it will meet your needs. Depending on your preference, we can perform live tests of the solution in person or through remote-viewing software, or we can simply allow your staff to perform the testing and provide us with feedback about its performance.

Parallel testing recommended

We always recommend that you confirm a solution is 100% prior to relying on it for business critical functions. It is important to run the new solution in parallel with any existing solution until you are certain that it is performing to your expectations.

Final adjustments
Deploy into live workflow

Once any adjustments are made and a client signs off on a solutions, it is time to officially deploy it into the live production workflow.

Monitoring
Maintenance
Troubleshooting

Once a project is completed, we can be retained to provide periodic checkups and investigations to ensure continued healthy and error-free performance of a solution. Some clients establish a monthly maintenance budget to cover the costs of monitoring and minor adjustments to more complex custom solutions.

Support upgrades

When operating systems or third-party applications require upgrades, it is prudent to test a solution is a non-critical environment prior to upgrading. Identifying problems before upgrading can avoid disaster and we often assist clients in this process.

Enhancements
New business rules
Additional features
Expansion

Business professionals constantly face new challenges so we build every solution to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. However, when changes are more dramatic, a custom solution may require some additional work to expand or enhance its capabilities. If your business rules change in a way that was not originally anticipated, changes will be needed. Since we can’t anticipate every circumstance that may arise, changes to a solution are typically treated as a separate project and, therefore, require a new budget.