Enterprise Solutions Methodology

The Incandescent Enterprise Solutions Methodology (ESM) is an organized collection of tasks, milestones, deliverables, standards and best practices employed to ensure consistent quality in each of our client engagements. It provides a comprehensive set of tools that can be customized to fit each project's unique requirements and characteristics. The ESM is a modular methodology that is compatible with many common project management methods that your organization may already utilize, so it can be leveraged regardless of the point in the project in which it is introduced. The ESM modules include:

Define

The Define phase of the ESM establishes the basis of the initiative by identifying project objectives, formalizing project scope, creating conceptual designs, estimating project schedule and resources, and identifying project risks.

Determine

The Determine phase of the ESM is primarily focused on identifying the business, functional and technical requirements of the solution. These requirements form the detailed objectives of the initiative and provide the input to the design phase. Key activities in this phase include requirements gathering, source system identification and analysis, data profiling, metadata population, and requirements mapping.

Design

The Design phase of the ESM is where the detailed specifications for the solution are created based on the conceptual design and the detailed requirements. The detailed designs serve as the blue prints of the solution and are formally specified and documented for each data model, program module, and report in the solution. A prototype or pilot of the application is usually created in this phase to ensure the viability of the solution in light of the requirements gathered in the Determine phase.

Develop

In the Develop phase of the ESM, the construction of the solution is executed based on the detailed design specifications from the Design phase. In addition to development of solution, unit testing and system testing are performed with formal testing procedures and methods to ensure data and program correctness, stability of the solution in a full volume testing environment, and acceptable performance of the application or better.

Deliver

The Deliver phase of the ESM promotes the solution into the production environment. User acceptance testing (UAT) may be performed at this time. Upon successful completion of UAT, the solution is placed in a go live, operational state. Operational procedures and knowledge transfer documentation, and customized user training of the solution is also completed in this phase. Detailed design for enhancements and future solution iterations is usually performed in parallel with this phase as required.