Approaching the Project

Many organizations have standard application development practices and methodologies that are followed with every project that involves system deployment efforts and some level of programmatic customization. These methodologies can trace their ancestry to a simplistic methodology that was used with the invention of the wheel.

The "invention of the wheel" approach goes something like this: Ug is bored of carrying his mammoth tusks on his back all day (business pain); he needs something that will help reduce his effort and allow him to carry more, increasing his efficiency and keeping his boss happy (requirements). After he finds and refines the solution (development) and tests it (pilot), Ug can show his colleagues and find out what they think (user acceptance testing). After this is completed, he can manufacture it and allow his colleagues to carry their tusks more efficiently (deployment). After his colleagues have their tusk carriers, Ug will monitor what they think of it and make changes where necessary (support and maintenance). Needless to say, Ug used this process to develop a cart with wheels, and the rest is history.

Things have changed somewhat since then, but the concept remains the same. This process can help any person responsible for a Crystal Enterprise software project, or any project for that matter:

• Identify business pain
• Establish project requirements
• Develop the application
• Complete user acceptance testing
• Deploy the technology
• Support and maintaining the application