subject: Software Development Policy [print this page] Objective Objective
To adopt a process of iterative pigtail progression to accomplish expedient, efficient design and development on future projects. This refers to a cyclical revision process contained inside a linear progression, illustrated as a curly line, or pigtail.
Problem
The design / development process that is in place at many organizations is no process at all, which results in multiple costly revisions, and a tendency toward non-adherence to any established standards or conventions, if in fact, such standards and conventions even exist.
This process will facilitate transparent communication to establish effective interaction and dialogue between all parties involved in the conception, design, development, approval, testing, implementation, and revision process of websites and applications.
Solution
Establishing a systematic approach for design and development of new websites and online applications will save time and money. Applying a System Development Life Cycle model is the most efficient way to do this.
If roles, standards, objectives, and expectations are clearly defined through the process, from beginning to end, there can be little confusion as to who was supposed to accomplish a given task.
We must define the following questions prior to any design or development:
Who Who will design, develop, approve, test, launch, review / revise.
What Scope. What exactly do we need to accomplish? What is the ROI?
Where Will this be an internal tool, or a public-facing B-to-B application or site?
When Reasonable deadlines.
Why Why build it? Will this site or application save time / money? Generate leads?
How Implementation and presentation What is appropriate? Will we do this with Server-side code? Static HTML? Flash? How will it look? ASG Corporate? Modern? Business-like?
Definition of Roles
The Who part of the process would be designated by the managers, or leaders of the design and web teams. (Example: Matthew will design the flash introduction, Mark will design the page layout, and Luke will cut graphics, and code the application.)
Likely, the initiator of a project would define What, Where and When. (Example: We would like a lead automation system, by end off fiscal 2007. It will be an internal tool, but with a public-facing component, which will be the lead form. We wish to capture leads and get them into our existing AS400 database.)
Why would be a brief explanation of the business objective, and any business pains remedied?
(Example: It takes hundreds of hours to enter leads manually, and it is too slow. By the time we contact everyone, they have already purchased software from a competitor.)
How Technology: defined by web team, presentation defined by design team and web team.
