Project management and application development

Multibase works in partnership with clients using formal processes, agreements and documentation. We also work to make genuine trust the heart of our business relationship. It is often said that Multibase staff take customer issues personally.

The process is often sustained over many years, so that working with us is also a risk-management investment, where our continuity can protect the value that your technical systems hold even if a client's staff changes.

With Multibase, the project lifecycle is managed with the customer as the centre of our CRM, project, time management, and financial systems. We produce reports in PDF and emailed format for various aspects of the process, including requirements, planning, progress and delivery. Individual reports are also sometimes developed to suit particular customer and project requirements.

Roles

Multibase is built on teams working together, not heroes working alone. Reporting to each other and the customer is emphasised.

The following roles may be involved in a project:

Account manager - overall responsibility for the customer relationship

Project manager - overall responsibility for delivery to requirements

Development team leader - develops the technical specification and manages the development effort

Developers, usually at least two - responsible for developing and unit testing of software and user interface)

Customer service team leader and Customer service team - responsible for coordinating development of the user interface, delivery of associated services such as hosting, and issue management

Testing and Quality assurance team - develops the test plan and responsible for quality testing

The need for all staff members to participate actively in our company culture means that Multibase uses its own staff, not external 'journeyman' contractors.

Project lifecycle - the customer journey

Multibase's project lifecycle is integrated into the entire management of fulfilling customer requirements. The process is divided into phases which each have prerequisites (input requirements) and deliverables (output documents/software packages). Although the process is not always linear, in an ideal world the phases cannot commence until the previous phase has completed and all of the prerequisites are available. At a minimum, a phase should begin only when the prerequisites are in place.

Multibase's goal is to ensure efficient, predictable, reliable delivery of a solution that integrates good design, functionality and value for money. The process that it follows is akin to a relay, not a marathon. The quality of our results and the spirit with which they are delivered depend on our teamwork

Free consultation

We do not charge for the first consultation about your project. In this, we will develop a broad understanding of your requirements and objectives, and the business issues that you want to address. We will consider the overall scale and scope of the project that you are proposing, its likely major components, and the roles of both your team and Multibase. Depending on the scale of the project, we may proceed straight to a quotation or meet to scope and plan the project in more detail.

We may also consider your needs and your marketing and communication objectives; identify possible solution elements, functionalities and technologies; and the overall strategy and priorities for the project.

Green light

At this point there is a decision on whether to proceed to the next stage.

Establish the business relationship

If you decide to proceed to the next stage, your account manager will discuss the relevant standards and procedures with you, covering: Multibase development methodology, Multibase trading terms and conditions, and Multibase development terms and conditions.

Requirements quotation

If the requirements, scope and effort of a project can be analysed and documented in around half a day, there is usually no need for a separate Requirements quotation. For larger projects, we may need to begin the project with a Requirements quotation to cover the extended time and effort necessary to gather and document your requirements in detail. Sometimes this activity is rolled into the main project.

Gather and document customer requirements

This process may require meetings or workshops. Requirements documentation covers matters such as

• Overall strategic and tactics
• Security
• Performance and availability
• User requirements and use cases
• System requirements
• Business processes
• Budget parameters

Online strategy quotation

The Online strategy quotation covers the time, effort and resources necessary to develop and document your online strategy plan.

Develop and document online strategy plan

The Online strategy plan typically covers:

• Situation analysis - review of any existing site or system, including user behaviour and analytics
• Plans for moving forward
• Online vision - planning; content; presentation; technical requirements; system expectation, including measurable targets
• Search engine optimization
• Site marketing plans
• Specification brief

Green light

At this point there is a decision on whether to proceed to the next stage.

Develop design quotation

The Design quotation covers the effort needed for the detailed design of the project, covering the following as appropriate:

• Functional specifications or use cases
• Technical design
• Content plan
• Creative, graphic, multimedia and user interface concepts
• Search engine optimization plan
• Release plan

Design document

One or more documents will be developed, covering those required for the project:

Functional specifications: A description of the functions of the system, or the way in which it will be used.

Technical design: System architecture, databases and programs required, as well as solution components such as hosting, domain names, SSL certificates, and ecommerce gateway.

Creative, graphic and user interface concepts: May include wireframes, screen mockups, 'look and feel, artwork, colour schemes, examples of similar sites, and other design rules and features. Multibase can do this, or collaborate with your own designer.

Content plan: Typically includes a site map, a description of structure of the content pages or screens, and the way that the content will be gathered or created.

Search engine optimization plan: Web sites need to be planned to maximize their visibility to search engines, so that site visitors can find your site with a search. Covers site structue, page titles and headings.

Release plan: A typical project is staged in Releases of approximately 2-4 weeks of elapsed time. This priorities and orders work to be done. Core components are typically developed first.

Test plan: A complex system may require development of a formal test plan. Tests are written before development begins. This is an efficient way to catch and fix software bugs.

Whatever the scope of the project, at the end of this stage we will agree on a specification which is the basis for development.

Development quotation

Our Development quotation is an estimate of the effort and resources required to deliver the project to the specifications that have been development.

The quotation is never just a guess. We do our very best to make an accurate estimation of what will be involved in the success of your project, and give you our best price. The hours for a project include all our activity on your project, including planning, meetings, development, testing, quality assurance and implementation, project management, reporting, documentation, maintenance and technical support.

Where a project uses standard products and services, we are able to provide a fixed price for these components. We can combine them into unique packages that will fulfil most needs. There is always the opportunity for non-standard, custom provision, which will sometimes attract a higher price.

As a guide, at least 10% of your budget might be devoted to planning, 60% to actual construction and testing, and 30% to post-production maintenance and management. Often the need for follow-up maintenance, management and refreshing of the site is underestimated, yet our experience is that this is often where the client is able best to understand how to incorporate the project into their day to day business.

Acceptance meeting

We meet in person or by phone to review the documents and quotation, answer any questions, and you make a decision to proceed either as proposed or with amendments, or not at all. We receive your formal written acceptance of our quote for the Development stage of the project.

Development

Big projects usually have a team of developers, and are recursive through these stages. Smaller projects often have a single developer and are more linear.

For many projects there is a significant technical setup stage. This may involve establishing a development environment for internal work, a quality assurance site for you to view progress and test on the web, or a production environment. It may also involve setup of ecommerce facilities.

Multibase defines standards for developers and provides ongoing training and supervision in their application by developer team leaders. These standards are developed from Multibase's own experience and from industry-standard best practices. They include:

• Software development lifecycle
• Database development standards
• Coding standards
• CVS (Concurrent Versions System) version control
• Standard local and server development environments
• Web development security standards
• User interface standards

Team members will meet to ensure that our team has a common understanding of the requirements of the project and how we manage our relationship with you. Typically at least two developers will work on a project to ensure that more than one developer is familiar with your system for long term support.

Creative

Here we build the graphics and navigation systems as agreed in previous stages.

One team member may focus on the development of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML. These often form a separate "layer" from the "backend" code and databases in a system to control the navigation (the dynamic relationship of one set of content to another or one web page to another) and the interface (the presentation or 'look and feel' of the content). It also speeds development as well as later site additions or makeovers to concentrate these controls in readily changed code. Minor changes to look and feel are then minor configurations rather than wholesale recoding.

Testing

Testing: Testing is critical, and developers will test before you see the site. The developer aims to make the code work - the tester aims to break it!

Quality assurance: The site or system is generally now installed on the QA server and tested again. You have an opportunity to view and test the site and check it against the specification. When we receive your final amendments we make necessary changes and complete the project.

Customer acceptance testing

Customer acceptance testing: At the end of the Release Plan schedule (1 - 3 weeks) Multibase releases a version to you for review. The client reviews the delivered version against the Specification created at the first step. If there are deficiencies, they are fixed before future development takes place.

We ask you to test functionality and check content. You can make minor alterations to the site - layout, wording, details and so on, without adding significantly to the time to delivery. Wholesale reconstruction may require re-specification and an additional quotation, or simply an order for additional hours.

The site or system is installed on the web so you can view it. This may be in its final location with or without password protection, or it may be on a development or demonstration server, depending on the nature of the site.

Deployment

When both the client and Multibase are happy with the version, the application is deployed into production, or if it is a longer project we will work through the development cycle again.

At the final stages, we may move the site to the live web server, test and optimise databases and web site code, file structures, content, checking download speeds, and so on.

At this point, we formally hand over the Release stage to you in writing, generally by email.

Approve the release

When the project comes to the end of the final release, the application goes into final review by the Client.

If the project was on a fixed-price basis the 30 day warranty commences. At the end of 30 days the application is signed off by the client. If issues are found subsequent to the 30 day period, the issues are resolved at Multibase's standard hourly rates.

Now, at the next sign-off point, we ask you to approve this Release, whether part or whole of the site. This is the final sign-off.

Support services

Hosting and ecommerce: If we are providing hosting or ecommerce for the project, these orders and agreements will now come into force.

Customer service and support: The Multibase helpdesk is readily accessible for customer support during business hours. Typically, customer service is about helping you use your system, remind you about something you're not familiar with, or check that everything is running as it should. Services outside the scope of normal customer service, such as issues requiring detailed investigations, repairs and enhancements for issues specific to the customer's web site or application, are charged at the prevailing hourly rate.

Support plan: A regular support plan allocates a number of hours each month to work to be performed for the customer. The monthly allowance can cover enhancements to the service or site, consultancy, troubleshooting, search engine testing and listing, documentation or other work as requested by the customer.

Support systems: Whatever is decided about ongoing support, we update our customer service systems. This may involve entry into our network backup, monitoring and alarming systems, as well as our product profiles so that we have a record of what we have provided to you in the future. This smoothes our future support or enhancement contacts with you.

Training and documentation

Training your staff: Training of staff to use the new system is included in some projects. We can deliver formal or informal training in our office or yours; our skills include professional training development.

Documentation: User and system documentation can also be included in the project as a separate item. We can deliver this in almost any printed or online format.

Multibase staff training: The project manager and developers will brief the customer service staff on the project, so that they know who you are and what services we provide to you if you need to contact us in the future. They will typically be the people that you talk to first, and it's important to us that you can feel that you are contacting your support team rather than an anonymous call centre.