Project Planning / Project Management

Software Development Process - The ACI Process Model was created utilizing industry best practices as an iterative approach to plan, develop, and deploy custom designed applications that solve our client’s business needs. Our process encourages customer involvement throughout the entire development life cycle and builds upon the knowledge gained during each step of the process. Each area of our process contains important information for both the ACI development team and our clients as well.

Envisioning Phase – During this phase, the development team, typically led by the Project Manager, will work closely with the client to gather project requirements, define features, and create prototypes. At the end of this phase, the client will receive a copy of the Vision/Scope document. This document represents the ideas and decisions developed during this phase. It helps achieve team & client consensus on the proposed solution as well as define areas included and excluded from the solution. The client must review and approve the completed Vision/Scope document before any further work is done on this project. As mentioned above, this is an iterative process and the document may be revised before both the client and team come to a consensus. Once the document has been signed, this becomes the basis for planning the project.

Planning Phase – During this phase, the Project Manager will plan the development of the project based on requirements and features detailed in the Vision/Scope document. The project plan will include a WBS (work breakdown structure), schedule, communication plan, test plan, and deployment plan. The planning phase helps facilitate an understanding of the overall approach for the project as well as helps identify any gaps or inconsistencies. Once planning is finished, the team is ready to move into development.

Development Phase – During this phase, the team completes the graphic designs based on the approved prototypes and performs the detailed programming tasks outlined in the Vision/Scope feature sets. Upon completion of all design and development tasks, the Project Manager performs an audit of the project. This audit compares project specifications to what was actually developed. If any discrepancies are noted, they are corrected. After the audit is completed successfully, the project moves into the stabilization phase.

Stabilization Phase – During this phase, the team will execute the test plan created during the planning phase. ACI can offer additional testing such as usability or load testing upon the request of the client. Additional testing must be added to the project schedule and budget. Upon completion of successful testing, the project will move into the deployment phase.

Deployment Phase – During this phase, the fully functional application will be deployed to the production site and become ready for use. The client will be asked to sign a project completion document.

After the product is successfully delivered to our client, ACI will continue to guarantee our delivered solution for an indefinite period. While hosting with us, you may find issues or bugs that are a result of the development of your software by ACI. If an issue is determined to be a result of ACI's development work on your website, these issues will be dealt with at no charge. If an issue is determined to be the result of other changes by you, or otherwise the result of issues outside of our control, you will be billed hourly for time spent resolving the issue.

We look forward to getting to know your business needs. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.