Process Phases

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ZAD Solutions Software Development Process

  • Project Initiation PhaseThe initiation phase comes right after a contract is signed with ZAD Solutions. In this phase all parties involved in the project and their exact roles are identified from both parties; the client and ZAD Solutions. On the ZAD Solutions side, a project manager is assigned to the project. In addition, the resources required for the project are defined; whether human resources, hardware resources, or documentation and material. The outcome is a preliminary plan of meeting and milestones for the next phase; Requirements Management Phase. 
  • Requirement Management PhaseThe requirement management phase addresses one of the most fundamental issues for project success; unification of the project team behind a common and clear set of requirements. The team must have a clear vision of what it wants to accomplish for the customer and be able to state it in terms that will motivate the entire team and the customer. Creating a high-level view of the project’s required goals and existing constraints will serve as an early form of planning; it sets the stage for the more formal planning process that will take place during the project’s design and plan phase.
     
  • Design & Plan PhaseThe design and plan phase tackles the detailed design of the solution and the complete final and detailed plan of the project. During this phase the team works through the design process to complete the design, and prepares work plans and exact schedule for the various deliverables and milestones. This phase takes the requirement specifications document as its input.
     
  • Code & Unit Test Phase
    During the code and unit test phase the team accomplishes the building of the solution components and functions. However, some development work may continue into the test and deploy phase in response to the full system testing. The start of this phase is dependant on the approval of the deliverables of the Design & Plan Phase; the Click-Through Demonstration where applicable and the Project Plan. This means that this phase will not start before the approval of the deliverables of the Design & Plan Phase. This phase involves more than code development. The infrastructure is also developed during this phase and all roles are active in building and testing deliverables. The testing of this phase is not on the fully integrated solution, but rather on each unit or function developed. Every unit is tested on its own after being developed before being integrated into the whole solution. During the code and unit test phase, there might be a one or two demonstrations at the most provided by ZAD Solutions to the client. These demonstrations are simple in nature and are intended to make sure of a common understanding. Whether there would be demonstrations or not, is dependant on the nature of the project.
     
  • Test & Deploy Phase
    The test and deploy phase conducts testing on a solution whose features are fully integrates and complete. Testing during this phase emphasizes: - Usability - Functionality- Interface Testing is attempted to be under similar conditions to that of the live environment. The team focuses on resolving and triaging (prioritizing) bugs and preparing the solution for release and deployment. After full testing, the team deploys the core technology and site components, stabilizes the deployment, and transitions the project to operations and support. Stabilizing activities are ongoing during this period as the project components are transferred from a test environment to a production environment. The deployment completion culminates this phase. By this time, the deployed solution should be providing the expected business value to the customer and the team should have effectively terminated the processes and activities it employed to reach this goal.
     
  • Acceptance & Evaluation Phase
    The customer must agree that the ZAD Solutions team has met its objectives before it can declare the solution to be in production and close out the project. Acceptance will be based on the signed Requirements Specification and Design documents. The team obtains final customer approval of the project. After the deployment, the team conducts a project review and a customer satisfaction survey. With the completion of this phase, the project is closed and no more resource are dedicated to it.