How we work
This page describes how we work with you when we develop a spreadsheet application; we use a similar process when we generate business documents or produce user manuals & process documentation.
Step 1 Initial consultation
We meet (at your premises or ours) to discuss your high-level requirements. Typically this involves us 'walking through' your current processes and making detailed notes of the key activities. Ideally representatives of all stakeholders in your business will be present, i.e.:
- someone who will use the application every day, for example to input data and generate orders;
- someone who will make use of the processed data, for example use the generated timesheets and reports;
- someone who can make a judgement of costs and benefits.
In your organisation, the same person may fulfil one or more of these roles.
As the consultation proceeds we indicate broadly where we think automation could be of benefit to you, but this is at a fairly general level and is subject to our evaluating our notes after the meeting. We'll also investigate proprietary packages and advise you if one of these is more appropriate than a bespoke solution.
Experience has shown that about an hour is sufficient for this free initial consultation; any longer and there is a risk that talk will turn to implementation rather than requirements. Also, although we don't charge for the consultation, we are aware that it will divert your time away from revenue-generating activities.
Step 2 Proposal
We analyse the notes from the initial consultation and produce a Proposal document. This will address all the aspects of the current process and how they can be improved by automation.
We email the Proposal to you for your observations, clarifications and corrections.
This is an iterative process, requiring two or three passes to ensure that comments are incorporated correctly and that both parties have a clear understanding of the scope of the proposed work.
Note that it is usually possible to finalise the Proposal without a further meeting, but we are quite happy to attend one if you think it would be helpful.
Step 3 Specification and Quotation
This is a more detailed description of our suggested solution based on the agreed Proposal. It includes screenshots and, in some cases, a prototype with limited functionality to enable you to evaluate the 'look and feel' of the application.
It's at this point that the low-level requirements will be identified; such as operational limits, data validation criteria, supporting software applications.
We email the Specification to you for your observations, clarifications and corrections - a bit like the Proposal.
Accompanying the first draft of the Specification will be our Quotation which contains the planned timescales and a price for the work. If, while we are refining the Specification, we identify unforseen activities that lie within the scope of the agreed proposal, it is possible that the timescale may increase (but not the price).
Step 4 Approval
You approve the timescales and the price. If necessary, it may be possible to remove features from the specification to lower the price. Also phased delivery may be possible and, in larger projects, desirable.
Step 5 Implementation and Testing; Production of user documentation
We implement the agreed specification and exhaustively test the application. Ideally the day-to-day operation of application will be intuitive, but we generally produce a User Guide which may be useful when the usual operative is absent and a 'temp' is brought in.
Step 6 Delivery and Installation
The application is installed at your premises and brought into use. This could actually be a two-stage process: the initial version can be installed for evaluation by the eventual operator and any problems can be ironed out before actually 'going live'.
Step 7 Operation
You subject the application to 'real world' use and report any problems. We continue to make changes until all users are happy with the application and feel it fulfils the agreed functionality.
Step 8 Invoice
We generate our invoice for the work and send it to you. We ask that you pay this within 30 days.
Note that this is the first time that you are expected to pay for anything.
Step 9 Early life monitoring
The invoice certainly isn't the end of the process. Any further problems that you encounter during the first few months of intensive use, and any minor improvements that you identify will be fixed at no extra cost.
