Phase & Workflow Overlaps

The phases do not mean that all work is completed on one phase before work begins in the next phase. Phases serve as a yardstick of forward progress toward preparation of the many work products that are underway throughout the project. Each of these work products is associated with a workflow using the terminology of the Unified Processthe origin of all modern system development life cycles. The major workflows we propose include:

Phase	Workflow
Business Analysis and Functional Specification	Process Modeling
Business Analysis and Functional Specification	Decision Management and Business Rules Management
Business Analysis and Functional Specification	Requirements Management
Design	Data Management and Modeling
Design	User Experience (Story Boarding)
Design	Use Cases
Design	Technical Architecture and Computing Environments
Design	Detailed Design
Construction	Application Development and Interfaces
Test	System Testing
Test	User Acceptance Testing
Test	Training
Implementation	Organizational Change Management
Implementation	Implementation Preparation and Release Management
Implementation	Initial Application Maintenance and tuning
Closeout	Ongoing maintenance and operations.

Each workflow is associated with a primary phase. However, each workflow begins in an earlier phase and will have at least ten percent of its work carry over to a subsequent phase.

Each workflow and its work product(s) build on the effort of the earlier workflows. The early start of each workflow serves as a test to verify that the earlier workflows are sufficiently complete and clear in their guidance.

The overlap of workflows and the lack of finality? is at the foundation of the Unified Process and Agile Methods. However, this overlap directly contradicts RFP and Contract requirements for the completeness of deliverables as a condition for payment.

There is far more support for than understanding of either the Unified Process or Agile Methods as approaches to the system development life cycle.

The Unified Process (successor to the Rational Unified Process or RUP) gets recognition for standardizing use of the terms Inception, Design, Implementation, and Deployment.

However, these terms are overused and their meanings typically misunderstood and thus mis-applied. More important than the terms for phases are the concepts of WORKFLOWS in the Unified Process.

The State and most public sector clients in general require a series of DELIVERABLES to serve as the basis for project checkpoints and payments for work in progress.

DELIVERABLES are the product of WORKFLOWS, not PHASES of the system development life cycle.

Example of Workflows Crossing Multiple Phases

The Data workflow provides a good example of a workflow crossing multiple phases. In the Analysis Phase, the data workflow begins with assembly of the project Glossary. The Glossary may even be included in the Requirements Specification document. It is not uncommon for the Glossary to begin as a listing of business terms in the Project Charter. Analysis may also include a conceptual data model that provides a graphical depiction of the major entities or subjects of the business domain (eg: Monitoring Entity, groundwater basis, site, monitoring technique). During the Design Phase, the project team will prepare the logical data model and the data dictionary. Finally, during Build the database administrator will write scripts to prepare the physical database schema.

Primary Phase	Workflow	Approximate Percent of Work Performed by Phase
Primary Phase	Workflow	20 percent	70 percent	10 percent
Business Analysis	Process Model	Charter	Business Analysis	Design
Business Analysis	Requirements	Charter	Business Analysis	Design
Business Analysis	Decisions and Rules	Analysis	Business Analysis	Design
Design	Data	Charter	Business Analysis	Design
Design	User Experience (Story Boarding)	Business Analysis	Design	Build
Design	Use Cases	Business Analysis	Design	Build
Design	Technical Architecture and Computing Environments	Business Analysis	Design	Build
Design	Detailed Design	Business Analysis	Design	Build
Development	Application Development and Interfaces	Design	Development	Test
Development	Defect Correction	Development	Test	Test
Test	System Testing	Development	Test	Implementation
Test	User Acceptance Testing	Test	Test
Implementation	Training	Test	Implementation	Transition to Maintenance and Operations
Test	Organizational Change Management	Design	Test	Implementation Transition to Maintenance and Operations
Implementation	Implementation Preparation and Release Management	Development	Implementation
Transition to Maintenance and Operations	Initial Application Maintenance and tuning	Implementation	Transition to Maintenance and Operations	Transition to Maintenance and Operations
Transition to Maintenance and Operations	Ongoing maintenance and operations.	Implementation	Transition to Maintenance and Operations	Transition to Maintenance and Operations

A second challenge in the RFP and Contract insistence on finality in deliverables is the manner in which the material is presented. Too many people confuse the document's formatting with the document's substance and usefulness. Hardcopy deliverables decline in value immediately as soon as the first copy is printed. No deliverable from an automation project is static. Even document management systems with versioning pose challenges.

We prefer to maintain work products as a collection of components with use of databases to maintain requirements, business rules, test cases, and review comments. We have customized Sharepoint and open source products to support ongoing maintenance of deliverables. This ongoing maintenance capability ensures that the most current version is readily available and enables tracing changes that may arise such as new, modified, or replaced requirements that occur throughout the project life cycle.

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Phase & Workflow Overlaps