The Development Process

How our process works!

Perhaps this is the first project you've ventured out on for custom software solutions. You have questions about how Artifex will work with you on your project. It is a pretty straightforward process. Below this the high level walk through on what we do and in what order.

Initial Call

Our first meeting will, most likely, be over a phone call. You probably have a lot of questions. How long will your project take? What technology should you use? What is needed to get started? How much will it be? The first phone call is to discuss the project and see if we can answer the critical questions about the project:

1. Do we do what you need?

   We only work on projects that are within our field of work. For example, we are a PHP technology based company. If you're needing work for Java or Cold Fusion, these are technolgies where we have little experience and we would not be able to meet our service and performance levels that will result in your satisfaction. If we're not going to be a good fit, we like to establish that upfront so you can find your fit!

2. Is there a solution already built we can adapt to your project?

   Building custom software can be a substantial investment. Sometimes a package already exists which will do the majority of the functionality you're looking for. Since we work with many open source applications, we would point you to these solutions and, if the application doesn't answer all of your needs, we focus the scope of work on the modifications to the existing code.

3. Is there a realistic expectation regarding the schedule and cost of the project?

   Creating custom software is hard work and requires an investment to accomplish the desired results. Their are little in the way of short cuts in building software. It takes time and money to make the software work as you need it to. In the industry, there is a saying:
   

   You can have your software fast, inexpensively or done correctly. Pick any two

   This is exactly how the software industry is. With any industry, there are unrealistic expectations on both cost and time that some people have. We need to determine if our services are within your budget. We have processes in place and we pride ourselves on having satisfied clients, we won't compromise on quality. We can adjust the scope of the project or work in phases to assist in the management of the budget, or we can point you to firms who have different tiers of service.

Documents

After we've established we're a good fit for each other, we like to address all of the business aspects of the relationship. The Non-disclosure agreement, a questionnaire and a statement of work is put together. These protect your company's secrets - and ours - as well as brings some common operational items together and includes the high level project goals.

1. Non-disclosure

   This is the first document we send you, it contains the agreement between us and clariifies what we can and can't do with the information you provide us. We will also consider any agreement from your legal team that we need to sign as well.

2. Questionnaire

   This document asks questions about the project which helps as a basis for further discussion and we utilize it for the statement of work.

3. Statement of work

   This is the high level overview of what work needs to be accomplished. This is not a detailed document, as we will work towards the details later on.

Estimate

Once the documentation is all in place, we will work on an estimate for the work. We provide this for free. It will detail the general scope of the project, larger sections of the project will be broken out and itemized. It shows the overall cost and time line for the deliverables and completion.

Agreement

Once you have approved the scope of work and estimate, we will send an agreement to sign. This agreement includes all of the fine print, obligations of both parties, payment terms, etc. A deposit is required for the work to commence and varies by project.

Discovery & Design

The first step of the project is a discovery phase. In this phase, we will work with you to determine the details of the project. In this phase, we will create various documents to assist in the project's scope of work. Our primary documents include an ERD, wireframes, sitemap and user paths. The ERD is simply the database design. Wireframes are low fidelity mock ups of the site so we know what functionality is required and on what pages. A sitemap details what the structure of the site will be and where pages will end up. The user paths is an ordering of the mockups and sitemap so that we can trace how a user will walk through the site accomplishing the goals for the user's type. For example, a person wants to sign up for an account or a person wants to buy product A, the user path will assemble the mockups in the order the user will encounter them. This provides a map where we are able to determine exactly what needs to be done and where.

Development

With the documents from the prior step, we're able to start creating the application. We use an iterative development process. What that means is we develop a section of functionaliy, have you review it and then make changes to that section prior to continuing on to the next section. We arrange the work to allow us the greatest flexibility in changes to the project without impacting the scope or time line. Some projects will have daily updates, others the updates are weekly - all depends on the size and scope of the project.

Deploy

Once each section of development is complete and tested - you approve them and we move the project to the production location. During this phase we're monitoring the application and making sure it functions exactly as expected. We're available to make any fixes to the site that are needed.

Support

Once the software is completed and deployed, our relation doesn't end. The after delivery services we provide can be the most important for your company. We act as your remote IT department providng the support for the application when you need it most. We also handle ongoing upgrades and hope to earn the opportunity to work on additional projects with your company. Our goal is to pull along side your company, as your remote IT shop and help your company grow to the size you want it to be!