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TORNIEL Technologies International, Inc.
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"Delivering Capability Through Technology"
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INSIGHT Development FrameWork
Overview
PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The INSIGHT Development FrameWork™ (IDF) was developed to provide a consistent, predictable, and yet flexible framework for systems development. It formalizes what you, as developers, have learned over the years. It also helps in communicating this knowledge to everyone involved in the development of systems. We do not have to reinvent the development process each time a new project is undertaken or a product is built or changed. INSIGHT provides a consistent framework which allows you to focus your skills, talents, and creativity at meeting your customers' business and automation needs.
BENEFITS
Standardization of the development process provides a level of predictability to its users. As a results, use of INSIGHT facilitates better understanding, communication, coordination and management of those tasks and activities needed to plan, build and run systems in a productive, cost-efficient manner. Standardization of the process allows managers better control over the entire development process. This, in turn, enables consistent project management practices to be utilized, providing improved products , lower maintenance cost and satisfied customer. Listed below is a summary of the benefits we receive by effective utilization of the INSIGHT Development FrameWork.
· Standardizing deliverables permits better monitoring and assessment of interim deliverables to determine the quality of the end product. Better quality products mean happier customers and reduced maintenance and support activities.
· Utilizing a defined process permits the focus to be on solving customer problems rather than inventing the process.
· Use of consistent terminology when communicating with customers and internal organizations reduces project risk and fosters improved understanding of roles and responsibilities, both within and without the project scope.
· Using a standard, repeatable approach allows the collection and usage of software metrics, permitting better estimation, hence more realistic schedules and resource usage.
· Defining linkages to other organizational processes enables Engagement Teams to interface with other organizations at the optimal point within the process.
· Upfront knowledge of required reviews, feedback, and interaction with other organizations allows the Engagement Team to include these activities in project planning and estimation. Therefore, there will be fewer surprises, issues, and problems to resolve.
SCOPE OF THE INSIGHT Development Framework
INSIGHT defines a framework that addresses all operating environments involved in the systems development process. It focuses on generic processes which provide the Engagement Team with the flexibility to tailor the phases and tasks appropriately to meet their project's characteristics. It highlights processes and provides examples of some deliverables that a Project or Engagement Manager would be required to produce. Figure 1 represents the framework established by INSIGHT.
Figure 1
Figure 1 reflects the linkage between the methodology and project management processes and the deliverable standards and guidelines associated with those processes. It also reflects linkage to other interfacing processes which must also occur to ensure successful project completion (e.g. Data Management, Operations, Data Security, etc.). The supporting (i.e. detail) processes or procedures which describe "how to" perform certain tasks are within or are referenced by the framework. The detail processes and specific linkages will be modified for each client that uses INSIGHT because these will vary based on organizational structure and development
INSIGHT references the traditional and structured approaches for software development. Additional approaches such as Information Engineering, Rapid Application Development and Object-Oriented can be supported through tailoring of the framework. As a framework, it is meant to be tailored to fit the specific need of the organization, project or product it used with. The INSIGHT Development FrameWork will continue to evolve as new technologies and techniques improve our ability to meet our customers' needs and expectations.
The concepts of project estimating in accordance with a contractual agreement to deliver a quality product within a given cost and time, are the directions that must be pursued in order for any organization to succeed. These directions will elevate the importance of project management in regards to cost control, tracking, and change management. Figure 2 represents this general direction.
Figure 2
INSIGHT USAGE
The INSIGHT Development FrameWork™ contains seven development phases which define the major system development areas. The framework consists of both project management and technical elements. The goal of INSIGHT is to provide a consistent approach to system development, while providing the flexibility needed for project customization.
Process flexibility is achieved by allowing process tasks within a phase or combined phases to occur in any order dictated by project demands. This ability, coupled with a phase and deliverable deviation forms, enables an engagement team to customize the methodology to meet their project needs.
This version of INSIGHT documents the traditional "waterfall" development path. This path begins with the Proposal phase and proceeds phase by phase through the Implementation phase. This, however, does not mean that one phase must be completed before starting the next phase. In addition, deliverable development may begin earlier than is specified in the framework but must be completed by the point specified. See Figures 3, 4 and 5.
Figure 3 - The Waterfall Method
Waterfall Method
Each phase is culminated by a verification and validation activity whose objective is to eliminate as many problems as possible in the products of that phase. As much as possible, iterations of earlier phase products are provided in the next succeeding phase.
Figure 4 - The Modified Waterfall Method
Major Characteristics of the Modified Waterfall Approach
The following are the major characteristics of a modified waterfall technique.
Incremental Development
Software is developed in increments of functional capability
Advancemanship
· Anticipatory documentation -
a. To define detail objectives and plans for future software development activities
b. To produce early versions of user documents
· Software Scaffolding - The production of extra products to make software development and verification and validation go as smoothly as possible (dummy software components or stubs, miniature files, test data generators, post processors, cross-reference generators, conversion aids, etc.)
Though alternate development paths are not currently documented within the framework, the engagement team can customize INSIGHT to define and utilize their own development path, including proof of concept, throwaway, evolutionary, and operational prototyping approaches. This can be accomplished by combining or splitting phases. Several possible paths are shown in Figure 5. These are not inclusive and is dependent upon project characteristics.
Figure 5
The combining of phases is determined based upon a project's characteristics. The decision to combine phases should be based upon the need to have defined project control points to ensure proper quality and customer concurrence. The use of Time Boxes for combining phases and supporting Rapid Application Development is recommended. The use of multiple development approaches within a given project (i.e., Client/Server development) is supported.
FEEDBACK
While there may be many effective ways to accomplish the same thing, the INSIGHT Development FrameWork has defined one way we think works well. However, as with all such guidelines, this one will be continually improved. We need and want your ideas, suggestions, comments, and even your complaints. If you have a better way or you find something that no longer works, we encourage you to provide this directly to us. If you need more information on the framework, please feel free to contact us at the following location:
TORNIEL Technologies International, Inc.
806 N. Highway 67
Cedar Hill, Texas 75104-2102
Voice: (972) 293-0216 FAX: (972) 293-0215
URL: http://www.torniel.com
Published By:
TORNIEL Technologies International, Inc.
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