DataCore's Project Delivery Methodology (PDM) provides the framework to ensure the system will meet your needs. Our methodology provides the following benefits:

• By applying a proven, consistent approach to each project, risks associated with shortcuts or mistakes are reduced or eliminated. Roles, activities, deliverables, quality standards, and tools and techniques are defined for each phase of the project, thus removing ambiguity.
• Quality assurance is designed and incorporated into the entire process from the beginning, and not simply treated as an “add-on” or something performed only upon project completion. DataCore strongly believes that you cannot “create quality through testing”, but rather must keep quality as a central focus in all aspects of the project life cycle.
• Deliverables are submitted throughout the project to provide for customer review, feedback, and approval. By keeping the customer actively involved throughout the project there are no unpleasant surprises when the product is delivered.
• Communication is enhanced by keeping all team members aware of the project goals, where the project has been, where it is, and where it's going. This results in delivery of a system that is well understood by your users and your support staff.
• A core user group is selected to participate in each phase of the development process. Their involvement provides the team with valuable feedback during development, rather than waiting until after the system has been completed and tested. Additionally, it provides the users with hands-on system experience early in the development cycle, which helps build confidence with the system and gives a feeling of ownership.
• Risks are assessed and managed through careful planning and monitoring. Potential risks are identified early, and mitigation plans prepared to minimize impact on the project.

System Development Life Cycle

DataCore's Project Delivery Methodology is a combination of the traditional waterfall method of software development and the rapid application development (RAD) model. The life cycle describes all the stages of development that have a direct impact on the application being developed, such as analysis, development, testing and deployment, and is comprised of the following phases:

• Plan - Provides a high-level view of the existing business and information system, the business needs and objectives of the project, and project scope.
• Define - Specifies what is required by defining the system requirements and functional design.
• Design - Defines how the requirements will be met by the technical design process.
• Build - Development and configuration of the system; verifies that the system satisfies the user requirements.
• Deploy - Installation and setup of the system. During this phase the end-users are trained, user acceptance occurs, and the system is moved into a production environment.
• Close - Project sign-off, freeing of project resources. Once the project is completed, the project moves into a maintenance and support mode to ensure the on-going success of the implemented project.

To learn more about our project methodology, you can continue by reading our DataCore Up Close series of articles online, or download a copy of our DataCore Project Guide.