Our Process - Project Planning
Following the initial meeting and prior to writing the project proposal comes the important project planning phase.
A well-planned project framework will ensure that the solution is durable, scalable and flexible, offers value for money, supports its users in the most effective and intuitive manner and is developed using the correct technology.
The most straightforward solutions are usually the best and most reliable, which is why we only start our project planning when we have all the facts about your project in front of us; this overall view allows us to create a simple and elegant solution.
The value of effective project planning is that it ensures your project is:
- delivered on time
- cost effective
- stable and reliable
- meets your business objectives
- meets your users’ expectations
- efficient in its use of hardware and software
- scalable (to meet future demand)
- flexible (to enable future enhancement)
- achieves the project’s goals
- a success!!
All website and multimedia development projects have a multitude of ways in which they can be conceived and whilst there is no single correct way to implement a complex project there is certainly best practice. Our aim is to find the best possible solution that takes into account all your requirements.
These requirements usually fall into the following categories. Different requirements clearly have different levels of priority.
Aesthetic Requirements
Although the ‘look’ of your website or multimedia piece is unlikely to appear at the top of your priority list it nevertheless requires careful consideration. Whilst the way your application appears to its end users will usually not dictate the direction of the proposed solution, an understanding of your aesthetic requirements is helpful at this stage.
Functional Requirements
The functional requirements of the project are the main drivers behind the proposed solution. With a full and comprehensive knowledge of your functional requirements, based on our initial meetings, we will be in a strong position to confidently factor them into devising the best solution for achieving your project’s goals.
The greater our understanding of your project’s functional requirements from the outset, the more effective our proposed solution will be. It is therefore important that these requirements have been carefully thought through before they are presented to us at the initial meetings. Projects where functionality has been bolted on as the project has progressed can be seriously compromised.
Compatibility Requirements
It is very important to factor any compatibility requirements into the planning of a project solution. Compatibility requirements may include the browser versions a website must support, the minimum hardware requirements a CD-ROM or Windows application must support or the kind of device on which the application is going to be viewed e.g. Pocket PC, WAP on a mobile phone etc.
Existing System Integration Requirements
If your project needs to integrate with any existing components it is essential to consider these components in the project planning phase. The entire choice of technology for the project may need to be based on the solution integrating with existing systems. Systems integration can usually be handled neatly provided the details of the integration are available at the project planning stages.
Budget Requirements
Your project’s success depends upon it falling within the limits of your budget. Where these limits are known, it should be possible to tailor a solution to fall within them. This is why it is important to have an idea of the budget before project planning begins. Any solution will fail if the project cannot be completed due to a lack of funds. Equally, a solution that has been unnecessarily constrained because the full budget had not been disclosed will not be as effective as it could have been.
Timescale Requirements
If a particular delivery date is crucial to your project’s success it is important for us to devise a solution that can be delivered within the proposed timescales. A very short time frame might dictate that some of the less important functionality of the project has to be removed or revised to keep the development time within the specified parameters. In some cases it may be possible to formulate the project’s structure in such a way that it can be rolled out at the delivery date with reduced functionality, with the missing functionality being easily and seamlessly added at a later date.
Usability Requirements
The nature of your target user and the kind of environment in which the application is to be used can both impact on our proposed solution. The usability requirements can influence the interface design and layout, which in turn could affect our proposed solution. For example, an application which is predominately going to be used by the elderly might require high contrast graphics and larger text to make the interface easier to see, while an application which is going to be used with a touch screen interface might require larger control buttons to avoid the problem of more than one button being touched at the same time.
Hosting Requirements
Any hosting requirements imposed on a website development will have an important bearing on the proposed solution both in terms of the technology used and also the potential functionality. Where the nature of the hosting environment has yet to be decided it is important to realise that this choice can impact upon the functionality.
Careful consideration of all your requirements allows us to come up with the best-fit solution for your project. Based on our solution we are in a position to create an accurate and realistic Project Proposal with fixed costs and timescales for implementation.