How We Work



Making your vision reality

How We Work

We take a firmly realistic approach to how we run projects. We live in a world where we place value on being able to control situations and predict exact outcomes, however, in reality it is rare for a development project to have the same scope by the time it is complete, compared to what you started out with.

For this reason we favour an agile methodology when developing and project managing our software solutions. While the process is sensibly rigid, by breaking your project down into small iterative sections and ‘stories’, we can be incredibly flexible when it comes to managing changes or new features within development cycles – and you can be intricately involved in managing the priorities.

We believe this provides the best of both worlds – predictable results within the bounds of flexible, real-world requirements.

 

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Our Process

Our agile approach to development includes a set series of processes - but rather than following the more commonly used waterfall method, where each stage of a project must be completed before the next stage can go ahead, agile works on the basis of development cycles and iterative phases. Each part of a project is broken up into user stories. We grade each user story to provide you with a cost and expected timescales. We’ll then discuss with you which stories need to be tackled in the first iteration (each iteration is usually around 2 weeks long). Once agreed, we’ll build, test and then review the recent work with you. After this, we’ll regroup and prioritise the next set of stories to be included in the next iteration, and the cycle starts over again. The major benefit to this method is that we are always working on the highest priority items and the process naturally de-selects the lower priority items. We often find that by the end of a project the lower priority items are discarded, as they were either not really required, or their cost was not justified. This ability to review and adjust the direction of the project and re-prioritise features and elements is invaluable in ensuring we deliver exactly the right solution, whilst allowing you as the client to stay engaged and in control.

Engagement and scoping

Getting to know you and your business is as important to us and understanding the concept you bring to us. You may think you know exactly what you want to achieve from your project, and what the end result should look like, however, from our vast experience, we understand that there can often be a disparity between want and need. We’ll probe and question the reasons behind your requirements, to make sure we deliver exactly the right solution – which can sometime be a very different beast from what you thought you wanted vs what you actually needed.

UX

Once we have grasped and understand exactly what needs to be achieved, we have to consider the users, and how they will interact with your system or app. We will develop wire frames to map out the user journey, ensuring it is as smooth and intuitive as possible. Once approved, these become our blueprints for taking through to the design phase.

Design

Designing your website, app or management system with a beautiful look and feel is the next step after getting the ‘how does it work’ bit right. This phase is often tricky as it’s likely that you’re not 100% sure how you want your solution to look. We’ll take a brief from you so we get a clear vision of what direction we should be taking. This phase is fairly evolutionary, as it is highly unlikely we will hit the mark on the first iteration…. but we’ll get there with your feedback! Once the design is signed off, you can sit back and let us crack on with the techy development bit……

Development

Using the agile method, this phase will be relatively quick. The initial development cycle will likely concentrate on writing the code that will power your solution, and thereafter, the flexibility of user stories and the ability to re-prioritise items will come into their own.

Testing & Debug

Testing forms part of the development process, as we are continually testing our code to ensure everything is working as expected. Prior to UAT (User Acceptance Testing) we will perform rigorous testing across browsers and devices where appropriate, and fix the bugs we catch. As much as we would like to say that we will catch all bugs, in reality there will always be one or two issues prior to a release. We embrace this fact and will debug and re-test until your solution is spick and span and ready to be launched.

Deployment / Go-live

Once you are happy to go live, we will put the wheels in motion to deploy your solution. And then move onto the next stage of development until the project is complete.
What our clients have to say...
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