When it comes to your most important projects, you must feel confident that your vendor understands the big picture. At Peachtree Solutions, we become an integral part of your team. We use a five-step process to ensure that everything goes as planned, to mitigate risk and maximize ROI.
This results in a successful outcome every time.

Discovery

At the very beginning, we discuss your business goals and make a business case for the project. Is it viable? What’s the ROI? Where does this solution fit? At the end of this phase, we deliver a sound strategy to guide the project.

During Discovery, we consider:

  • Primary objectives
  • Target audience demographics
  • Viability of opportunities and ideas
  • Key risks and challenges
  • Internal resources necessary for deployment
  • Internal resources necessary for maintenance
  • Expected ROI and time to market
  • Appropriate phasing

Definition

This phase is focused on requirements. What do we need to provide to the target audience? What are the features and functions? What are the technical requirements? Here we get down to the finest detail. No ambiguity. The final requirements document drives the process.

During Definition, we consider:

  • Target audience characteristics
  • Key messages
  • Use-case scenarios
  • Features and functions
  • Key processes
  • User interface requirements and constraints
  • Content requirements and constraints
  • Technical requirements and constraints
  • Integration requirements and constraints
  • Minimum client and server technical requirements

Design

There are three components to the Design phase:

Information architecture determines how users will navigate. Wireframes and sketches make it easy to understand the flow and structure.

Visual design fleshes out the project’s look and feel, including the user interface. Graphics bring the message to life.

Technical design documents the intricate details of the application so that everyone is on the same page during programming.

Note that at the end of each project, we also give you the keys to your application. We deliver a full technical blueprint so that your future projects — with or without us — will be easier to support.

Client documentation includes:

  • Primary, secondary and tertiary navigation architecture
  • Utility navigation
  • Workflow and process flow diagrams
  • Site maps
  • Off-the-shelf software selections
  • Relevant concept explanations
  • Security models
  • Base templates for all screens
  • Database schema
  • Business object models and designs
  • Coding standards
  • Naming conventions
  • Master file list with descriptions
  • User controls
  • Configuration files
  • Screen-level inputs and validations
  • Screen-level functional notes
  • Screen-level technical notes

Development

Programming happens here. We apply the highest coding standards and leave nothing to chance. At the end of this phase, everything goes through a rigorous quality assurance process so that it is well tested and ready to roll.

The quality assurance plan may contain:

  • Testing process
  • Testing scope
    • Functional testing
    • Integration testing
    • User acceptance testing
    • Performance testing
    • Server load testing
    • Regression testing
    • Bash and multiuser testing
  • System test entrance and exit criteria
  • Test phases and cycles
  • Resources
    • Human
    • Hardware
    • Software
  • Error and configuration management
  • Status reporting procedures
  • Issues, risks and assumptions

Deployment

How do we ensure a smooth deployment? Practice, practice, practice. Before launching any solution, we do a test deployment on our own server. By the time it’s ready to go live, we’re confident that the application will work the way it’s intended to. Now we can start gathering statistics and measuring success.

Of course, at the end of the process, we don’t disappear. If you need us, we’re always here!