Goals

Our implementation process is divided in 7 stages and ensures that:

• Deliverables are well-defined, documented and signed off 
• Technical pre-requisites are documented and communicated
• Delivery process is understood and agreed to by all key participants
• Solution is designed and tested to meet client specifications
• Progress is documented and communicated to key participants and sponsors
• Changes are managed and controlled
• Issues are logged, tracked, and acted upon
• The deployment of the solution is controlled and risk-free
• Production is fully supported
• Knowledge is shared and reused

Proposal

Proposal Phase – Understanding Business Requirements

Our Sales Engineers and Professional Services Project Managers work together to understand the prospective customer´s business needs and develop a solution to meet those needs.

Key activities:

• Define and document needs, objectives, and architecture issues
• Develop a preliminary solution with scope and estimates for the services
• Prepare and present a solution with services. Altitude will work closely with the client to assess the preliminary requirements. The deliverable for this phase is a proposal that includes:
  • A solution architecture
  • A description of hardware and software pre-requisites;
• Cost benefit analysis;
• A proposal for services to deliver the solution.
  
  This phase provides the client with a clear understanding of the benefits that can be provided by Altitude Software products and services. 

Analysis

Analysis Phase – Defining Solution and Services Deliverables

Altitude Software Project Managers and Consultants work with customer resources to define a common documented understanding of the solution and services to be delivered.

Key activities:

• Perform detailed discovery sessions and document full business and technical requirements
• Assess and document the fit/gap in the Altitude products and services
• Define and document the measures of success associated with the project
• Define and document the project´s scope and assumptions
• Define and document the roles and responsibilities

The Altitude Software Project Manager works with the client Project Manager to prepare for and document the requirements for the solution and services to be provided. Structured discovery sessions, where the Project Managers gather data from various client resources about processes, call and data flow, reporting needs, transaction volumes, and so on, provide the input to the detailed design document and statement of work.  The deliverables for this phase include:

• A detailed design document or functional specification
• A statement of work
• A site preparation document
• A check list with the implementation process

The deliverables provide a plan outlining the details of the final solution, how it will work, what the implementation process will be, and who will be responsible for each task. The documents also provide more detailed work effort and costing information for each portion of the project. The objective of this phase is to agree on the requirements, solution and services that will meet the business requirement of the client. By signing off the statement of work, the client agrees to proceed with an implementation that will result in the deliverables defined therein. The resources required to complete this phase are Altitude Software Project Managers and Consultants to review the implementation process, perform the discovery, scoping, document site preparation, and create the statement of work. The client will provide a resource to manage the project, and coordinate the discovery sessions with their subject matter and technical experts. Additionally the participation of these experts in this phase is essentially to provide input and validate the design and deliverables. 

Planning

Planning Phase – Defining Achievement Network and Resources

This phase is an iterative planning process. The focus of this process is the definition of an achievement network and resource plan to match the high level deliverables agreed to during the analysis phase. The key activities of this phase are to:

• Build an achievement network to map the project checkpoints
• Define predecessor relationships between achievements
• Accurately define time durations and prioritize achievements
• Assign resources and review assignments

The objective of this phase is to define a work breakdown structure that will provide the detailed roadmap for achieving the deliverables outlined in the statement of work. The Altitude Software Project Manager creates the achievement network with input from all participants in the project, factoring in the business concerns of the client and the availability of third-party resources.

Development

Development Phase – Creating and Testing the Solution

This phase focuses on an iterative development methodology designed to ensure that a tested solution is built according to the rigorous technical specifications defined in previous phases of the project. The key activities of this phase include coding, integration, testing and documentation.

Deliverables of this phase include:

• Functional design documents for
  • Configuration
  • Permissions / Security
  • Reports
  • Data migrations
  • Interfaces
  • Other customizations
  • Technical design documents resulting from the functional requirements
• System test plans to include scripts for:
  • Unit
  • System
  • Integration
  • Performance
  • Custom reports
  • Conversion plan
  • Training plan
  • Cut-over plan
  • Fully configured system ready for go live.

The goal of this phase is to deliver a tested solution that provides the functionality defined in the statement of work. This phase results in a sign-off from the client accepting and acknowledging that the solution is ready to go into production. All technical resources with responsibility to design and develop activities are required, as defined in the planning phase. The Altitude functional analysts owns the documents design and manaes the technical consultants to ensure the quality and completeness of the design. The Altitude Project Manager works with the Client Project Manager to manage the design and development activities, solve issues, and prepare and plan for the deployment phase.

Train and Deploy

Train and Deploy Phase – Preparing the Client and Implementing Solution

This phase depends on the cut-over plan developed in the previous phase.

Key activities:

• Prepare the production environment
• Migrate data
• Train user community and system administrators
• Cut-over to production

The Altitude and client training and technical consultants deliver the training and cut-over activities on a full-time basis during this phase. The client trainers or functional analysts will own the end user training activities and may obtain assistance from Altitude Project Managers and training analysts.

The Altitude Software Project Manager will work with the Client Project Manager to manage the training and deployment activities, resolve issues, and prepare and plan for on-going system support. The Altitude Software technical lead will assist the technical consultants during training and go-live activities. The objective of the deployment phase is to smoothly transition the solution into the client’s production environment and provide full functional and technical training to the user community and designated support people. At the end of this phase, the client signs-off the completion of the project.

The deliverables of this phase include:

• Training materials
• Trained user community and administrators
• Go-live check lists 
  • System security checks
  • Back-up testing
  • Network testing
  • Live system

Support

Support Phase – Ensuring the Solution Continues to Meet the Client’s Ongoing Needs 

This phase garantees the on-going support of the implemented solution, in the production environment.

Key activities:

• Define a support transition plan and review the maintenance and warranty agreements
• Perform a post-implementation audit
• Perform a customer satisfaction survey
• Promote open communication between Altitude and the Client The Altitude Software Project Manager and Account Manager will work with the Client Project Manager to define the support transition plan and requirements for ongoing system support.

The deliverables of this phase include:

• Support transition plan
• Post-implementation summary
• Customer satisfaction survey

Ongoing Management

Ongoing Management of the Service Delivery Process 

Additional activities that span the Altitude Software implementation life cycle help to ensure the success of the project.

The Altitude Project and Technical managers perform activities such as:

• Preparing progress reports
• Conducting progress review meetings
• Managing the resolution of issues
• Managing changes
• Updating deliverables, tasks, plans, and resources
• Managing risk

Progress Report:

Detail the following:

• Activities completed since the last progress report
• Activities that were scheduled but not completed in the last reporting period
• Activities planned for the next period
• All issues, the action plans to address the issues and their status
• Changes requested

Estimates will be provided outlining the resources consumed to date, the remaining work , and the likelihood of achieving project milestones. The progress report documents performance in relation to the benchmarks defined in the Project Profile and Statement of Work. The front page is to be used as an internal summary, and the second and third pages are to be used as a communication vehicle for client interaction. These reports are designed to ensure that all parties are aware of the ongoing use of resources for projects, as well as provide highlights of the critical path and any issues affecting service delivery.

Change Management:

Any additions, deletions, or modifications to the deliverables or functionality of a project outside the scope of the original agreement(s) included in the proposal or a statement of work (whichever is considered the benchmark document for the project), shall be subject to the Altitude Software change management process. The actual forms associated with the process capture information about the change and how important it is. The forms detail the work effort required to incorporate the change on the project, and evaluate the risks associated with the change and the impact on delivery times and costs. The purpose of the change management process is to ensure that the integrity of the original goals of the project is maintained and any changes to those goals are properly evaluated and communicated to all interested parties.