Building a System Off-Site

This route is to be used for new systems that will be developed, in whole or in part, off-site. Use this route if the system is to be built, but a significant part of the system will be build by consultants working under contract off-site.

The Initiation Stage:

  1. Proposal
    The proposal phase is the initial phase of a project. This phase identifies a business need, and proposes that a solution be found. It may or may not include an actual proposed solution. This phase is required, even when consultants are involved in the initiation of the project.
  2. Preliminary Planning
    In this phase, a preliminary plan is developed for the business analysis phase of the project, and the business context of the project is determined. This is the phase where the scope is set, resources are planned, and the context that the new system will operate in is determined.

The Analysis Stage:
  1. Contract Review
    If you will be working with consultants for the analysis stage of the project, you will need to negotiate a contract to identify the roles and responsibilities for the analysis stage of the consultants vs. the project team, identify the analysis deliverables to be produced by each, and specify the time frames for the completion of those deliverables. For this phase, the team requires expertise in negotiations and contracts, in addition to business and technical knowledge. During negotiations, the team should pay close attention to the terms and conditions, the analysis methodology to be used, the type of documentation to be provided, and the deadlines. The recommendation and contracts are forwarded to the executive sponsor. The signed contract is the deliverable for this phase.
  2. Business Analysis
    In this phase, we model the current business system, electronic or manual, focusing on the primary product, the triggering event(s), inputs to the system, and secondary products. This is also the first time we identify the objects that are intrinsic to the business in this system. This work is necessary, and can be done by in-house or out-sourced staff, but must be documented following DMS standards.
  3. System Analysis
    In this phase, we begin to move toward the future; the team analyzes the desired system, not the current system. This is where new ideas, features, and design changes should be introduced. The team starts by remodeling the business processes to include desired features, then focuses more closely on the transactions and events that make up the process, to create the Activity Flow diagrams. When this is done, the team extends the Entity Object Model to include aggregates and inheritance.

    4. In the final steps of this phase, the team focuses on creating the Project Plan, or refining the Initiation Plan and converting it to a Project Plan. This is when the requirements are developed, the remaining project phases are scheduled, the resources are identified and scheduled, and the deliverables are identified.

The Design Stage:
  1. Contract Review
    If you will be working with consultants for the design stage of the project, you will need to negotiate a contract to identify the design stage roles and responsibilities of the consultants vs. the project team, the design deliverables to be produced by each, and the time frames for the completion of those deliverables. For this phase, the team requires expertise in negotiations and contracts, in addition to business and technical knowledge. The team should pay close attention to the terms and conditions, the design methodology to be used, the type of documentation to be provided, the handling of interfaces, the release of design deliverables for acceptance testing, and deadlines. When the team has reviewed the contract, they forward their recommendation and the contracts to the executive sponsor. The signed contract is the deliverable for this phase.
  2. Logical Design
    In this phase, the focus changes to design. The extended team may be changed to take advantage of specific design expertise. The team reviews the materials from earlier phases and begins the system design, identifying any additional system objects, determining operations and data structures for all objects, validating relationships and interactions between objects, and prototyping user interface objects.
  3. Physical Design
    In this phase, the team completes the technical blueprints for the new system, based on the implementation platform. If necessary, the team may be changed at this point to take advantage of specific platform expertise.

The Development Stage:
  1. Contract Review
    In this phase, the team negotiates a contract to identify the development roles and responsibilities of the consultants vs. the project team, the development deliverables to be produced by each, and the time frames for the completion of those deliverables. The team reviews the contract(s) paying close attention to the terms and conditions, the handling of interfaces, the release of deliverables for acceptance testing, the documentation, training, and support to be provided, and deadlines. The recommendation and contracts are forwarded to the executive sponsor. The signed contract is the deliverable for this phase.
  2. Construction and QA
    In this phase, the system is actually built, and fully tested in-house. Corrections are made as required, and the User Acceptance Test system is built. The team may be changed again, to include specific implementation and testing skills, and must include at least one client from an earlier phase.
  3. User Acceptance Testing
    In this phase, the user acceptance testing is performed. This is an iterative phase, repeated until the system works according to the requirements defined in the analysis and design phases. When the system works as required, the Production system is built. The team may be changed to include specific expertise in the business area addressed by the system, to ensure that the system provides the required functionality.

The Installation & Deployment Stage:

  1. Implementation
    In this phase, the tested, integrated system is installed in the production area, documentation is delivered, initial user training is completed, and the application is turned over to the DMS Production Support team. When the system is running live, it is reviewed to ensure that all of the goals in the project plan were met satisfactorily. The team may be regrouped again, to include specific expertise in installation and training.