The Webficient Process
Whether you need a product built from the ground up or wish to improve and iterate on something you've already developed, Webficient offers a process that demystifies the software development process and keeps you in control of budget and priorities.
Click diagram to enlarge
Discovery
Every project, no matter how big or small, commences with ideas that justify the why of your business strategy. We help you understand how these ideas can transform into tangible software. For a new idea, we'll assemble and assign you a personal project team, consisting of a project manager, lead engineer, and designer (if needed). You'll embark on a deep dive with your project team to understand your ideas and extract high-level requirements. The end goal is to produce a set of task-oriented "stories" which can be prioritized according to greatest business need. We also identify the key participants in your project, understanding dependencies and critical paths.
Product Design and Development
The risks of a software development project decrease when clients are closely connected to the progress of their project, and development iterations are short and predictable. We work in an agile manner, focusing only on the tasks required to deliver the features identified for the current cycle.
Details:
- Ideas are communicated through wireframes and mockups, produced by our designers and/or you
- We use agile project management tools such as Pivotal Tracker and Campfire to keep things fluid and to give you transparency into the progress of your project.
- We sync up with you on a regular basis, whether you need daily "stand up" calls or weekly recaps.
- We can add or remove resources on a sprint-by-sprint basis. Pay for only what you need now.
- Testing included. Our developers write test scripts as they work on new features.
- Compliance with Web standards, supporting accessibility, and enhancing usability are concerns we deal with daily.
The benefit of quick, predictable iterations is that you will see a frequent delivery of features, and you can re-prioritize remaining cycles in response to any discoveries you make during these reviews. As you see the foundations of your project materialize in front of you, you'll have minor epiphanies and possibly new ideas. Our process allows us to adapt to changes mid-stream. We like to view scope change as a competitive advantage.
Deployment and Support
Through our strategic partnerships with vendors such as Engine Yard, we'll ensure your system is hosted on a reliable platform that can scale with your business. We monitor uptime, errors, and system performance, and help clients understand what changes may be needed as the system grows. We'll also ensure your system is wired for analytics so that you know who is using your system and how they are getting there.
Once your application is launched, you will likely want to keep evolving your offering in response to customer feedback and for competitive reasons. We'll continue to work closely with you on a monthly basis, helping you understand what should be improved upon and how to effectively manage your technology budget, whether you require a day a month or 30.
