Part I of this blog post focussed on finding the best fitting vendor, the importance enthusiastic stakeholders, digging deep during the discovery phase and how best to engage users.

Part II takes you further into the process...

5. The Best Approach is The Right Approach

As with most problems, there is more than one way to implement a project.  The right approach will depend on a number of factors such as the size and complexity of the project, the flexibility of the client and level of understanding of requirements.

The two main approaches adopted by VYRE are classic waterfall and Agile.  Both of these approaches, in the right projects, deliver successful solutions within budgetary and time line boundaries.  However, adoption of the wrong approach can have a negative impact on projects success. Clients tied to tight budgetary restrictions often lean towards a waterfall based project where all requirements and functionality is clearly defined and agreed upfront with fixed costs allocated to the project.  

If the problem is not as well understood or the structure of the business changes between contract signature and solution launch (possibly a span of months) then the cost of remedial development may far exceed the costs of an Agile approach that is designed to roll with the punches that businesses take from time to time and deliver a tighter fitting solution for less cost.  Of course, the reverse can also be true, an Agile project without clear direction, decisive leadership and a strong project team can lead to a project stumbling along whilst clocking up costs without delivering to the needs of the users.

It is vital that whichever approach is selected, it is right for the clients business and the whole project team (clients and vendor) are empowered to make tough decisions or push back on unrealistic expectations as and when they arise.  Projects are successful through partnerships, therefore the project team must work together to succeed.

6. First glimpses - Early User Visibility

Regardless of the approach taken on a project, it is essential users are given visibility of the system as often as possible and given regular updates on progress through demonstrations, or access to the development system.  As the graphs below illustrates, the earlier a problem is detected during a project, the less costly is it to fix.  If the solution is kept under wraps until a grand unveiling many months from the initial specification, there is likely to be a great deal of expensive and relationship damaging corrective work required before the system can be released.  Therefore, capturing user feedback early on and feeding it into the development cycle can drastically reduce the eventual total cost of the project and simultaneously increase user acceptance.

7. Making it Happen - The Right Team

Within the VYRE Professional Services department we have a team of intelligent and highly enthusiastic consultants who, between them, are veterans of many dozens of successful Unify implementations.  However, within this team there are individuals with particular specialities, both technical and non-technical, and ensuring the correct team balance for a given project is essential.  We take time to ensure that the right balance is struck in each project team to maximise the chances of project success whilst allowing each team member to gain something from the project for their own personal development.  This approach means that the pool of knowledge and experience grows equally for all team members and eliminates the establishment of knowledge silos. Regardless of vendor choice, ensure you dig into the skills of the allocated team.

8. Once, twice, thrice - Testing, Testing, Testing

Having followed all of the proceeding seven steps, even the best structured and executed project can be undone by a failure to plan and carry out a sufficient level of testing.  Testing is key to the success of the project, as it will dictate the users impression of the system post launch.  A poorly tested solution will leave users; even the enthusiastic user champions, feeling frustrated and their chances of adopting the system are severely, and sometimes irreversibly, damaged.  Too often testing is seen as an optional extra and the first thing on the plan to be cut when budgets or time lines are tight. But this is a short-sighted approach as remedial development after inadequate testing is likely to cost more and take longer than a reduced or removed testing phase.

Testing should never be viewed as one dimensional, that is, it shouldn’t be a single block of time bolted on to the end of the project plan in the hope that all bugs and usability issues can be resolved. Testing must be tackled from multiple angles and throughout the implementation phase of the project in order for it to be most effective.  During development, time should be allocated for peer testing of components by the developers themselves, this kind of testing often uncovers inefficiencies in the code or areas where code can be bundled together into components that can be reused around the system.  Cross browser testing should also be undertaken during development as fixing all browser issues at the end of the development can be an incredibly onerous and time-consuming.  

As each component, module or phase (depending on the structure of the project) is completed, there must be a formal period of system testing, ideally by an external test team but at the very least by a different team of developers.  System testing will be carried out against pre-determined test scripts or test cases and will ensure that the tested system conforms to the documented system requirements and functional specification produced during the discovery phase.  Finally, prior to releasing to end users, a user acceptance phase should be conducted with the project team to ensure that the functionality developed and delivered meets the needs and expectations of its intended users, assuming the levels of user engagement discussed above has been applied, the UAT phase of a project should not throw up any nasty surprises from a feature, functionality or usability point of view.

And that concludes our Eight Steps to a Successful Project…if you missed the first 4, click here…