Our 5-D Methodology

We employ a methodology that identifies the logical steps and important factors involved in the planning, delivery, and success of our solutions.

Discover
The Discover Phase sets the framework for the entire project. We perform a rapid, yet comprehensive inquiry to document all issues, processes, and stakeholders involved or affected by the project. This inquiry includes interviews with executives, process management personnel, and appropriate staff members. Some projects also require interviews with client suppliers and/or customers. This phase culminates with a Statement of Work that describes objectives and the proposed approach, schedule, and budget.

Define
Before work begins, we will define the scope of the project. In most cases, this involves information gathering, background research, comparison studies, risk and budget analysis, understanding time constraints, determining anticipated maintenance needs (such as updating data integration jobs or dashboard templates), establishing goals, and targeting the audience. A single contact and sign-off person are identified.In order to avoid the dreaded "scope-creep" later on, we rely upon clearly-defined parameters agreed upon by all parties at the onset of the project.

Design
In most cases, the Design Phase starts before the architecture has been finished. Designers add visual representation to the thoughts and ideas presented in the first two phases. Once the flow of the solution is established (for a data integration job or a strategic dashboard, for example), the entire solution is laid out and ready to enter production. Although this phase can actually occur more than once throughout the design and development process, it most often takes place both before and after production and implementation. Whether testing is done with a rapid prototype (of say an OLAP cube, a model, a dashboard, a report or a DI job), or a fully functional job, usability testing is an important way to ensure that the final product meets both the client's expectations and the users' needs. This phase may include multiple rounds of testing, many of which are iterative test runs of the prototypes to identify issues that may have been overlooked in the discovery phase.

Develop
Upon client acceptance of architectural specifications, further expenditures include specific Subject Matter Experts required to craft the desired Develop Phase solution. During this process, we engage rigorous project management and quality control methodologies to assure adherence to design specifications, and on-time, on-budget team performance. One of the ways we accomplish this is by keeping the client actively engaged in the process. The client is not only continually apprised of the project’s status, but asked to contribute to the process by on-going review of interim deliverables. The Develop Phase ends successfully once the client approves the completion of all tasks required to support the overall deliverable.

Deliver & Deploy
Once development is complete, the developed solution is system tested, user accepted and deployed into production.

The development process for data Integration and business Intelligence solutions is very iterative in nature. It quite normal for the flow to cycle through succesive steps in a back and forth manner. But through it all, we at Kindle Consulting have a method for managing the process to ensure high probability of success at completion.