Software Development is like Building a House

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Software Development is Like Building a House

• Presented by Keene Systems, Inc.

One Bridge St Suite 105 Plymouth, NH
03264 603-726-5058
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• This presentation explains how developing
  software is similar to building a home. These 10
  steps will help ensure your project is completed
  like you want.

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The Ten Steps

• 1. State the Goals
• 2. Identify Actors/Roles
• 3. Identify Processes
• 4. Define the Data
• 5. Screen Mockup

• 6. Integration Plan
• 7. Test Plan
• 8. Go Live Plan
• 9. Time Cost Estimates
• 10. Schedule

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Step 1 State the GoalsDescribe your dream
home
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• Whether building an enterprise software solution
  or building a house, the first step is always
  defining the requirements and clearly stating the
  goals of the project.

• Here are 3 questions to ask.
• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to go?
• What must I do to get there?

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Step 2 Identify Actors/GoalsWho will live in
the house
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• Who will need access to what data and how do they
  need to access it?

• Every actor plays a different role in the
  organization and thus has a different view of the
  data and different levels of access.
• For example, the CEO needs to see different data
  than the salesperson.

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Step 3 Identify ProcessesWhat will actors do
in the house?
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• Identify business processes and how data flows
  through the organization.
• Each actor has a different set of tasks that they
  need to perform to do their job.
• Identify each of these task for each actor.

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Step 4 Define the DataWhat do actors need to
use/consume?
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• Define the needs of each actor to fulfill each
  process.
• Next define core database requirements
  identifying all data to be captured.
• The database is the core of your business
  information flow and getting it right the first
  time is critical.

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Step 5 Screen MockupHow is each room laid
out?"
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• Next you need to translate the needs and tasks of
  each actor into a series of screen mockups.
• To properly plan a software project all screens
  in the system must be identified.

Fact A common reason for software project
failure or cost overrun is because not all of the
screens were identified and designed in the
planning stage.
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Step 6 Integration Plan How does the house
connect to the outside world?
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• All points of integration need to be identified.
• Each contact point needs to be identified.
• Not only what data is to be transferred but also
  an explanation of how and when.

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Step 7 Test Plan Inspecting the house to
ensure quality
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• Lack of test plans is why many systems go live
  loaded with bugs.
• Individual programmers need to test their part of
  the application.
• The project then should be handed to a testing
  team for end to end testing.
• Having an independent tester ensures better
  quality.

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Step 8 Go Live Plan Moving into the house.
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• Some systems can be turned on when ready.
• Others especially ones that need integration with
  another system, may require a complex go live
  plan to prevent any down time in an existing live
  system.

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Step 9 Time Cost Estimates How much will
the house cost?
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• This is one of the toughest parts of planning a
  software project. It requires you to look into a
  crystal ball and accurately predict the future.
• Armed with good planning you can take a
  systematic approach to coming up with a realistic
  time and cost estimate.

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Step 10 Schedule When can the house be
completed?
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• Size up your develop and create a schedule.
• Armed with total number of hours for the project
  youll be able to divide and conquer.
• Set priorities in the project then divide the
  different screens and task amongst the team.
• Next map this to real calendar dates and dont
  forget about holidays/
• Set specific milestone dates during the life of
  the project so that you can measure your success
  as you go.

Remember, if you cant measure it, you cant
manage it.
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Your business is all about data, whether its
people data, product data, sales data or trending
data. You have ways to distill this data into
numbers to make decisions based off the results.
Keene Systems offers a free consultation to
determine what your organization needs to improve
business processes
Lets Talk