Wondering about the best kept secret for a successful product implementation? The good news is that there are no silver bullets attached. In most cases, a successful and effective product implementation requires identifying and defining customer needs, formulating checklists of customer’s business requirements, translating them into technical requirements & solutions, and following essential steps to keep project right on track. This is what is termed evolving to change.
Gathering requirements is a fundamental step in this process. First, the business requirements are recorded and the gaps in the existing products and business requirements are found out. Based on this, whether to modify the existing product with the least possible changes or to deliver a new product altogether, will be determined. In general, there are three key areas of requirements that need to be addressed – Business requirements, Technology and technical requirements, and Integration requirements.
6d’s project plan begins with defining all touch points of the project including aspects such as Hardware Delivery, Design Architecture and Engineering Team, Site Contacts, Site Readiness Team, Development Team, Testing Team, Site Installation Team, IT Operations Team, Network Operations, Corporate Communications and Project Management.
6d uses best practices that require a representative from each of these groups who participate in the planning process. Gathering all representatives in a room and defining goals, objectives and timelines upfront allows all stakeholders to be aware of their responsibilities. Once these are defined, a discussion on interdependencies and constraints are considered. This allows all parties to understand that contingencies must be defined to build a robust architecture.
A powerful architecture defines all aspects including the desired features, functionality, capabilities, integration with the current network, and visibility from a management perspective. This paradigm rests on three key ideas:
- Exploring various alternatives and arriving at a just decision
- Creating flexible plans to ensure unforeseen events be considered
- Group decisions with all the concerned teams to plan and to be prepared for all situations.
Completion Strategy
Whether a project involves a complex, single or multi-site with stringent timelines, 6d is directly responsible for the creation and management of a custom plan for each project. Developing the roadmap so that each project can be managed from the beginning to the end thus taking care of customer’s need as a priority.
Detailed Design and Configurations
A detailed design document is prepared that outlines the configuration specifics for each site. This is done prior to deployment. In all cases, providing specific site configuration details and standard configuration templates upfront reduces errors during deployment.
Site Readiness
The procurement process includes contingencies for all of the above, and robust communication channels to notify delays prior to the implementation window. Site readiness considers space, power and network requirements.
Scheduling and Resourcing
Getting the right resources to the right place at the right time, and doing the right task is essential to any successful deployment.
Site Setup Installation
Site Installation requires resources to install and configure the network elements to deliver new products. Having a well-documented installation and configuration script (list of tasks) is essential for guiding the resources through the installation in a predefined manner. Feedback on improvements and nuances learned through resources can provide a mechanism for defining the optimal sequence of tasks.
Site Testing
Application services are tested with predefined test cases and schedule considering the overall, end-to-end performance and stability of the product. This includes every level of software testing: unit, integration, system and acceptance.
Operational Handover
A standardized process for handing over the product to the operations team post implementation with detailed documentation is ensured. This allows for any issues to be addressed by the operations team rather than the deployment team. In addition to defining the process for handover, the operational team is trained on the technology prior to the deployment.
Customer Satisfaction with Quality of service in a cost effective and timely manner is what drives us here at 6d and ensures 6d’s growth with reputation for delivering quality products.