| Dexterra non-invasively
integrates the existing enterprise applications infrastructure,
and makes the information from those applications available
to field personnel using a small form factor application
that governs the business process and drives productivity.
Applications that promote business organization and process
governance drives the necessity and significance of quality
services, and a consistent methodical approach to the support
and delivery of those services. Businesses need to react
rapidly, confidently, and in an integrated holistic manner
to that change.
To meet those objectives Dexterra has developed a Rapid
Deployment Method which provides clear and consistent guidelines
to our consultants, our consulting partners, and your own
deployment teams to ensure consistency, quality implementation
in the minimum time possible. Our own consultants are experienced
professionals who combine a solid technology foundation,
in-depth product knowledge, and a detailed understanding
of best practice Service and Field business processes.
The Dexterra Rapid Deployment Method guides our professional
services engagements and our partners in ways that balance
the discipline necessary to achieving consistent and repeatable
results with the creativity required for developing innovative
solutions.
Dexterra’s Rapid Deployment Method and our consultants
and partners can help ensure your success, position you
for future growth, and accelerate your field productivity
leaving you more time to focus on your customer and core
business initiatives.
Dexterra is rapidly deployable so the Dexterra Professional
Services organization complements this capability with a
rapid business oriented deployment approach utilizing best
practices in software development and project management
focused on achieving high impact results.
This document introduces the Dexterra Rapid Deployment
Method and describes the philosophies and mechanics that
guide how we apply it to mobilizing enterprise applications
with the Dexterra Mobile Enterprise application.
Implementation Lifecycle
The process of developing a solution can be thought of from
the perspective of a lifecycle of activities that begins
with the formulation of the problem and concludes with the
validation of the implemented solution against the requirements
for solving the problem.
The early stages of the lifecycle focus on the defining
the problem targeted for solution and identifying the requirements
for an acceptable solution. Subsequent stages involve designing
and implementing the solution.
Dexterra’s Rapid Deployment Method divides the
lifecycle into five phases which define and refine the solution
through a well defined set of processes. The phases consist
of:
1) The Business Process Gap Specification,
2) The Solution Requirements Definition,
3) The Solution Design,
4) The Solution Implementation,
5) The Solution Validation, and
6) The Solution Delivery
Each phase produces a comprehensive understanding of the
problem with solution options and a set of deliverables
which document the progress of that phase while involving
the client in the deployment of the solution. The work for
a particular phase is driven by a set of activities that
are designed to achieve the objectives of the phase in an
efficient, well organized fashion. Project plan and deliverable
templates for each phase ensure that individual task assignments
are unambiguous and contribute to a cohesive overall solution.
The Dexterra Rapid Deployment Method provides structured
opportunities for communicating with a client to validate
the success of the solution. Continuous interactions ensure
that the solution being deployed actually meets the client’s
actual need.
Practices and Tools
The approaches and techniques that comprise the Dexterra
Rapid Deployment Method are standards and best practice
based ensuring a wide availability of third party skills
worldwide to fulfill delivery of Dexterra's Mobile Enterprise Platform. Examples include formal project management
techniques, an approach to facilitation which is based on
the Use Case analysis method, and a requirements definition
process developed around the principles of design by objectives.
Lifecycle Phases
A Lifecycle Phase in the Dexterra Rapid Deployment Method
consists of a set of activities organized into a project
plan of well defined deliverables describing the overall
solution. The following descriptions summarize the objectives
and activities of each phase of the Dexterra Rapid Deployment
Method and discuss how the phases relate to one another.
Business Process Gap Identification
The Business Process Gap Identification is the starting
point for a Professional Services engagement, fully developing
and describing the AS-IS and the TO-BE states. The gap consists
of a conceptual representation of what must be done to reach
the desired state.
To facilitate clear and unambiguous communication between
the client and the project team, the approach to defining
business processes and related gaps is highly visual and
uses process modeling techniques that keep the focus on
understanding the problem instead of jumping prematurely
to a solution.
Much of the interaction between the client and the project
team during this phase concentrates on understanding the
driving forces behind the need to change and reviewing potential
process improvements that will help effect the desired changes.
One of the most critical challenges of this phase lies in
selecting a target business process that lends itself to
a practical and high-impact solution. Choosing the right
problem to solve is the most important step in ensuing a
successful project and ultimately an effective solution.
The result of the Business Process Gap Identification is
a set of models and descriptions that define the starting
point of an existing process, the target of a new or refined
process, and the transformations that need to take place
to facilitate the change. This information provides the
basis for the defining the requirements for potential solutions
which is the domain of the Solution Requirements Definition
phase.
Solution Requirements Definition
The Solution Requirements Definition phase identifies and
quantifies the appropriate the criteria of an acceptable
solution. These criteria include the functionality that
the solution must implement, the data that it will interact
with and environmental requirements that will be important
to the solution when it is deployed.
The process of defining requirements involves interacting
with stakeholders in the business process to better understand
and validate their requirements. It also provides a forum
for anticipating the expectations that will be placed on
the solution once it is deployed. Working with stakeholders
at this stage to establish functional (process oriented)
as well as environmental requirements ensures that important
characteristics, such as performance or security, are considered
early rather than after a solution has already been selected
and implemented.
The primary deliverable of this phase is the Requirements
Definition Document, which captures the criteria that were
developed during the phase’s activities and the acceptance
criteria that will establish specific metrics that determine
whether a particular solution adequately meets requirements.
Solution Design
The Solution Design phase specifies a solution that meets
the criteria outlined during the Solutions Requirement Definition
phase. A Solution Design consists of a logical design and
a solution architecture. The logical design translates the
requirements from prior phases into a model that expresses
the functional and data requirements of the solution at
a detailed level.
The logical design and solution architecture deliverables
provide information needed for planning the solution implementation
which are the focus of the next phase.
Solution Implementation
The Solution Implementation phase consists of determining
the overall strategy and specific project plan for translating
the solution design into the actual solution. It also embodies
the execution of the plan.
The goal of the Solution Implementation is to deliver the
solution and documentation specified by the Solution Design
phase. Activities during this phase include defining the
project plan, staffing the project, creating an implementation
schedule, managing and carrying out project activities and
monitoring progress.
Testing and Validation
The Validation and Testing phase ensures that the solution
developed during Solution Implementation meets the requirements
established during the Solution Requirements Definition
and Solution Design phases. Activities of this phase will
likely be integrated with activities of the Solution Implementation
phase in order to provide continuous feedback that will
help guide the development of an effective and ultimately
effective solution.
Delivery Strategy
Once the solution has been built it will need to be placed
in the host environment where it will carry out its function.
The goal of the Deployment Strategy phase is to develop
a realistic plan for the deployment and management of the
solution. The deliverables for this phase will vary depending
on the extent and needs of the solution user population.
Typically they will include a deployment project plan, an
administration strategy and a training plan.
Subsequent Iterations owned by Customer’s
own staff or 3rd Party
The nature of a project will determine how the lifecycle
approach is best applied. For projects of limited scope,
a single pass through the lifecycle may be sufficient. Larger
initiatives may involve several sequential lifecycle trips.
In this approach, experience and information from early
passes serve to refine the approaches used in subsequent
trips. For especially large and complex initiatives, a project
may be divided into component sub-projects which navigate
lifecycle phases concurrently.
This strategy requires special attention to the overall
solution architecture and the strategy for integrating the
results of all sub-projects into a cohesive, unified whole.
Project management is especially critical for this type
of initiative and should be considered at the same level
of importance as the activities dealing with defining and
implementing the solution.
With small and large projects alike, the focus and discipline
of the lifecycle approach enhances the effectiveness of
project work efforts and works to ensure that the ultimate
solution addresses the problem that provided the original
impetus for the project.
Project Management Orientation
Ensuring the success of any business initiative requires
careful planning and well coordinated execution. Capable
and disciplined project management is the key to making
sure this happens. A proactive and well defined approach
to project management is a recurring theme throughout the
Dexterra Rapid Deployment Method.
Whether an engagement consists of a single lifecycle phase
or entire project that involves several trips through the
lifecycle, our consultants use best practices in project
management in order to define clients’ expectations
and maintain clear and effective channels of communication.
Dexterra’s Rapid Deploymentt Method provides a
foundation of basic project management discipline for all
engagements regardless of size. For small engagements regular
status reports and an engagement summary may be appropriate
while larger projects involving multiple lifecycle phases
would demand more extensive project planning, coordination
with client personnel and active management and coordination
of project activities.
The following aspects of Dexterra’s approach to
project management would typically be employed within a
project that was guided by the Dexterra Rapid Deployment
Method. The following sections describe how project management
process would be integrated into lifecycle activities.
Project Definition
The Project Definition describes the objectives and scope
of the engagement, the role or roles that Dexterra Professional
Services will play, deliverable descriptions, criteria for
success that will apply, project communication protocols,
any assumptions made in the design of the project and the
roles and responsibilities of anyone involved in the project.
A Project Definition serves as the framework for the execution
of a project and in this role provides an opportunity for
all parties to formally agree on the goals and objectives
of the project. Additionally, the Project Definition specifies
change control procedures that apply when, for one reason
or another, the scope of the project must change.
A standard Project Definition template provides consistency
while also allowing Project Definitions to be tailored for
particular project and purposes. A Project Definition for
a limited engagement that involved a single lifecycle phase,
the Business Process Gap Identification, for instance, would
typically be appropriately concise whereas the Project Definition
for the definition and construction of an entire solution
would be much more extensive. In either case, the Project
Definition provides an important reference to the original
intentions of the engagement.
Project Plan
A Project Plan provides detailed information on the work
that will be performed, who will perform it, when it will
be performed, dependencies among project activities and
estimates of activity durations. The Project Plan represents
both a roadmap for where the project has been and where
it is headed as well as a snapshot in time of where the
project stands at any instant. Since projects must deal
with an environment of constant change, an up-to-date project
plan serves as an invaluable decision making tool both for
project team members and project sponsors.
Status Reporting
Regular Status Reports facilitate a constant flow of information
on project progress, issues impacting its progress and the
contributions of individual team members. Status Reports
complement the project plan in that they provide additional
detail behind project activities. The format and frequency
of Status Reports can be tailored to accommodate both project
and client needs.
Change Control Process
Often unforeseen changes in requirements or shifts in the
surrounding environment necessitate a change in a project’s
scope or strategy. Since these changes may invalidate agreements,
assumptions and decisions that had previously been made
in the project definition process, the Change Control Process
provides a mechanism for specifying the changes and modifying
the Project Definition accordingly. The Change Control Process
is described in the Project Definition. When it is employed
it serves to extend the Project Definition and consequently
allows it to respond to mid-project development.
Project Close Out
By definition a project is a finite effort that revolves
around the process of solving a well defined problem. Therefore,
a project has an end just as it has a beginning. Although
one project may flow into another, it is beneficial to evaluate
the effectiveness, experiences and results of a project
against its original definition. The Project Close Out provides
an opportunity to assess these factors and channel lessons
learned into the next project. The Project Close Out document
creates a record of a project’s accomplishments and
lessons that to complement other documentation develops
throughout the project.
Summary
This overview of the Dexterra Rapid Deployment Method
has provided a summary of the basic approaches and philosophies
that drive Dexterra Professional Services engagements.
Our Method is guided by a lifecycle orientation that seeks
to thoroughly define a problem before deciding on a solution
and then building the solution in an evolutionary manner
that provides constant opportunities for client feedback
and assessment.
Dexterra Professional Services also employs acknowledged
best practices and best-in-class tools to support our methods.
Our disciplined approach to project management further ensures
that we are always striving to meet expectations that have
been carefully defined and mutually agreed to with our clients.
The consistent result is successful projects that produce
solutions that effectively solve our clients’ crucial
business problems.
For more information please contact John Stewart, Vice President
of Technical Services john.stewart@Dexterra.com
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