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U.S. Department of Energy
The D.O.E. used Pierson's methodology and training services to implement their development process and received the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI's) certification of their process as a Level Two Repeatable Project Management and Commitment process on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Pierson also provided mentoring services for their pilot projects in addition to training the entire project teams in JAD/RAD and object-oriented techniques.
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Amica has used the JAD/RAD approach to implement a 2 year migration plan as a result of Pierson's training and mentoring its corporate JAD department. Amica has also successfully used facilitated sessions for strategic, organizational, and project planning.
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Pierson's Multi-Tier Architecture Methodology
Methodology can be purchased as is or customized to your needs.
Most of our customers have put the methodology directly on their company intranet.
Some strengths of our methodology are as follows:
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 | The format is easy to use and is concise. For each workstep the following is given: Description, Input, Output, Tips & Techniques, Agendas, Roles and Responsibilities, Templates. |
| The methodology is a detailed guide telling you exactly 'how to' successfully conduct your projects. |
| Our training is patterned after the methodology and assists you in successfully implementing it. The author of the methodology also wrote the related training seminars. |
| The methodology is relevant and current. It incorporates the Unified Process and uses the notation of the Unified Modeling Language. |
| A number of leading Web Development and E-Commerce consulting companies as well as companies writing intranet and mainframe applications are using our services for development methodology and to train their project teams. |
| Pierson mentors and trains companies to assist them in implementing the methodology. |
Customized Development Methodology
Pierson can provide you with a customized methodology for Object-Oriented development projects using the notation of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the Unified Process. This customized methodology can be placed on your intranet to serve as a handbook or guide for the software system development teams. This document defines the steps and phases that should be followed, technical modeling options, and refers to quality procedures which should be employed. In this methodology Pierson will provide your company with a repeatable process for:
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| Using the notation of UML Modeling and Unified Process |
| System Development Life Cycle deliverables |
| Joint Application Development (JAD) activities and JAD Session agendas |
| Rapid Application Development (RAD) |
| Documentation templates |
| Best practices to be utilized throughout the Problem Statement, Requirements, Analysis, Design, Construction, Business User Final Acceptance and Transition phases of the system development life cycle. |
Pierson can also provide your company with a methodology to evaluate and select a vendor for outsourcing and for evaluation and selection of software packages.
JAD/RAD Process
DISCOVERY
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DESIGN
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Problem Statement
JAD Project Scope Definition
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| Use Case Diagram/Mgt. Perspective |
| Project Definition Document |
Requirements Analysis
JAD Requirements Definition
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| Process Flows, Use Cases, & Glossary |
| CRCs Role Playing or |
| Object Model & Interaction Diagram |
| Prototypes & Functional Specification Draft |
Analysis
JAD Reviews/Focus Groups - Prototypes
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| Detailed Use Cases & Interaction |
| Static Object Model |
| Functional Specification | |
Release Plan
JAD - Final Prototype Review & Release
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| Project Plan |
Design
Design the system and database
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| Server Object Model, Sequence Diagram |
| Design Document | |
What is JAD?
Joint Application Development (JAD) is used as a technique for gathering business software requirements. The purpose of JAD is to bring together the technical/creative team and the business community in a structured workshop setting to extract consensus based software requirements. This is accomplished by using a trained JAD facilitator and customized, planned agendas to assist the participants in arriving at complete, high quality requirements. Experience has shown that the JAD process substantially reduces development time, costs and errors.
JAD is commonly used in the following activities: scoping/problem statement, process redesign, requirements analysis, prototyping, application design, test and implementation planning.
Why use JAD?
JAD is a proven method that offers time and cost savings:
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| 25% - 50% of time saved for requirements gathering |
| 25% - 33% time saved over the entire project or 3-4 months out of a year long project |
Not just time and cost savings using JAD:
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| JAD and prototyping used together give 95% of the user-required functionality |
| Getting it right the first time |
| No redesign |
| Consensus based requirements |
| Key measure is customer satisfaction |
| Provides a tool for communication between developer and customer |
Industry studies have shown that 56% of the problems with software are due to poor requirements gathering while only 7% are due to poor coding. 82% of a company's maintenance effort is due to poor requirements definition while only 1% of its maintenance effort is for fixing code problems.
Why do facilitated sessions work?
They create a forum for conflict resolution, creative solutions, consensus and commitment. JAD provides a tool for clear communication and requirements definition. Documentors are available in the workshop to capture the group's information creating a requirements document that can be distributed. Prototypes are reviewed and discussed.
What is RAD?
Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a process that speeds the delivery of functionality to end-users by segmenting software into pieces for delivery rather than delivering all of the software functionality in one large implementation. It is an iterative process utilizing a spiral methodology and is also customer driven following an evolutionary process using continuous application engineering in a time-boxed fashion with a dedicated professional team. The goal of the iterative approach is to reduce the time between requests and delivery of Business Application Software. Some of the primary characteristics of RAD projects are:
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| There is a strict deadline for basic functionality |
| Projects can be released in increments |
| Techniques such as time-boxing, dedicated teams and focus sessions are used |
| Business users are involved throughout the project and JAD is used |
| Total project time is usually 3 - 6 months |
What is UML?
An object-oriented graphical modeling language for specifying and communicating the structure and dynamics of software systems. Pierson uses the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the Unified Process standards. It is used to create business models for requirements analysis, analysis models and design models. |
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