Microsoft Solutions Framework

The Developing Phase

During this phase, the solution is developed and optimized until it is deemed ready for production use.

Note: EA - Enterprise Architecture.

There are three interim milestones.

• Lab Testing Complete
• Proof of Concept Complete
• Pilot Complete

Note: For application development projects, interim milestones should be versioned internal releases. During the developing phase, the team should also try to achieve a visual design freeze and a database freeze, even though these are not interim milestones.

The Developing Phase includes five deliverables:

• Pilot Plan
  • The purpose of the pilot is to test the solution in a real environment. With this in mind, the pilot needs to include representatives from every user community and usage scenario impacted and to validate the implementation, training, and support plans and procedures that will be used in the production rollout.
• Training Plan
  • The probability of success of any infrastructure project is contingent upon the quality and appropriateness of the training provided to the respective users. While training is not an end product of the project, it is a critical component in determining the positive or negative impact of the solution.
• Capacity Plan
  • Capacity planning and the optimization of infrastructure components are two activities that must be approached cautiously and systematically because the conclusions drawn from these activities can dramatically impact the overall effectiveness of critical business processes.
• Business Continuation Plan
  • The purpose of the Business Continuation Plan is to recover only the elements of the technology that are essential for conducting business, to minimize downtime and loss of revenue. Disaster recovery encompasses business continuation and extends to the restoration of systems to their pre-failure state.
• Rollout Plan
  • The Rollout Plan is a step-by-step strategy for effectively deploying the solution to the targeted users with minimal disruption to the organization’s day-to-day activities. It should address the technical design and implementation issues associated with the new technology and incorporate the training, security, procurement, and support plans and procedures discussed earlier.

   

Note: For application development projects, the deliverables for Scope Complete are a bit different:

• Revisised functional specifications
• Revised master risk assessment document
• User performance support elements
• Testing elements
• Revised master project plan and revised master project schedule

The Team

During the Developing Phase, the entire team is focused on refining the proposed technology infrastructure functionality (or application) into a high-quality, effective solution.

• Product management: Primarily responsible for developing and deliverying commnuications to the user community outside the project team.
• Program managment: Responsible for managing the functional specification and ensuring that the solution developed during this phase meets those specifications.
• Development: Responsible for the actual development work of all aspects of the solution.
• User Education: Responsible for documenting the solution, developing, purchasing, or modifying training materials, maintaining the training plan, and communicating and advocating for the users and their requirements.
• Testing: Responsible for testing each aspect of the solution, making issues known to the appropriate member or members of the teadm, testing documentation, and managing the testing plan.
• Logistics Management: Responsible for developing the rollout and site preparation checklists, and updating the deployment and pilot plans.

The Developing Phase culminates in the Scope Complete/First Use Milestone.

At this milestone, the team has validated that the solution has the desired functionality and is stable enough to implement in full-scale production and that the known issues are being managed. This is also where the essential implementation, training, and support plans and procedures are defined.