1. GENERAL CHECKLIST FOR THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
General Information
The activities mentioned are general information sake. The Projects need to take only those
activities that are relevant for them. Some of the steps are created which will enhance the
value to the customers. However they might involve some additional efforts from the team.
The management need to decide whether to take up such activities or not considering the
customer relationship in mind. Some of the activities are prepared in a view that multiple
parties are involved in development. Need to be customized in case if it is not so.
It is advisable to make help of the Coach to identify what is relevant and not for the project.
It will also benefit to give exact meaning/interpretation of each of the activities mentioned
Part of these steps may be available in Quality Management System(QMS) frame work.
They are repeated here to give more focus on such activities. Most of the steps under each
category are written assuming that Discoverture Solutions holds the entire responsibility.
They need customization in case the assumption is incorrect
The checklist mentioned in the next sheet is made with an assumption that the project is
under 'onsiteoffshore' model. If the project is totally onsite then some of the activities are
not applicable. The associate is expected to have exposure and good knowledge of QMS and
using the QMS Procedure in their Project. The project team need to follow/practice the QMS
Methodology as per the organizational norm. The checklist shown in this file is only
indicative and addresses more towards the customer specific activities/practices.
Adhering/practicing the contents of this file does not completely confirm to the QMS
adherence. The Project team need to get in touch with Quality Representative (QR)
tocimplement QMS in their Projects. The Project Managers are expected to make a Tick
Mark for the Items available in their project or not and also they can put a remark that its
applicable item or non applicable item for their Project.
S. No Major area Description of the activities to be covered
1. Customer Expectations Get the Goals & Objectives of the project Remarks of PM
Find out who are the ultimate users of the
Product/Project
Find out the KRA/CTQs for the Project
Find out the major success criteria for the
Project
2. Scope
Prepare a list of in-scope and out-scope items for the Project
2. Prepare the list of deliverables to be made from DSIL side, with the Corresponding delivery
date.
Prepare the list of deliverables from the customer and the corresponding delivery dates.
Prepare the list of assumptions from Discoverture side and their impact on the project
Send the scope, deliverables, assumptions to the customer and get an agreement
Identify whose responsibility is to make the user manuals, whether customer provide user
training or Discoverture solutions need to provide user training.
Check if there is any data migration (Partially/full) is required along with application
development
Get the sign off from the customer for all of the above (preferable)
3 Initiation
Prepare the overall Project execution Approach (from Req. Stage to Go-live).
Make a Process over this and Discuss this approach with the customer and agree with a
agreeable approach
Check (from the customer) if the Customer specific templates to be used or Discoverture
Solution specific Check (from the customer) if the Customer Quality Process to be used or
Discoverture Solution Process can be used or a mixture of both
prepare the list of 'customer specified templates'.
Conduct Project kick-off meeting
Create Project in Software Project Repository and get Project Id
Register the Project for Time Sheet Capturing
Prepare the responsibility matrix when multiple parties are present
Get the contact details of all stakeholders. Telephone Numbers, EMAIL IDs, Cell Phone
Numbers
Get the contact details of all third parties and key parties involved in the Project
4 Infrastructure
Get the list of SW to be used along with Ver No. in the project
Get the list of the HW to be used in the Project
Identify the SW to be Provided by the customer
Identify the SW to be procured within Discoverture Solutions
Identify the HW to be provided by customer
Identify the HW to be procured within Discoverture Solutions
Identify the Access requirements on customer side servers
Check if usage of Open source tools is acceptable for the customer
Identify what tools to be taken from Open Source
Prepare the list of Discoverture Solutions associates along with required access rights on
Customer site servers.
Establish the connectivity between the onsite servers and offshore clients
Identify what tools can be used in the project for code review, Configuration management,
Bug reporting/tracking, Performance test, Unit testing etc.,
Check if there going to be separate development, test & production environments
Check if the test environment is same that of Production environment
Check if the S/w version on all these environments are same
Check if any of the client portals need to be used during the project for reference (ex:
3. Customer Quality Process, to verify Standards, to upload metrics etc., )
Prepare a list of associates who need access to what portals
Provide the list to customer and get the access
Create a Common folder at Discoverture Solutions offshore
Get access to Shared Project Folder at the customer site for Discoverture Solutions
associates
Identify the HW/SW requirements for the offshore teams
Communicate to Corporate services/Network and communication support to get the same
Prepare Development environment at Offshore
5 Standards & Guidelines
Check with the customer if they have pre-defined coding standards?
Check with the customer if we need to use the customer coding standards or
Discoverture standards?
Check if we need to use any automated code review tools?
If project team need to use automated code review, is the tool(s) available with the
customer or it is freeware?
Can we get access to the customer tools?
Can we get the licenses to use the customer tools by the offshore team (if offshore exists)?
If Project team needs to take the coding standards from Discoverture Solutions, has the
project team located the standards from QMS of Discoverture..?
Get or Define the source file naming convention (if need to be used by Customer or made
by the team or from Discoverture Solutions QMS)
Get the standards/guidelines for Database Design
Get (or Prepare) the framework for the following services in web application development (
Logging, error/exception, session management, security, scripting & messaging)
Prepare guidelines for these services to be useful by the developers
Get (or Prepare) UI standards.
Get (or Prepare) the UI Framework
Get (or Prepare) the Middleware development Guidelines
Get (or Prepare) Documentation Guidelines
6 Project Team
Prepare the Roles & responsibilities of the various role players in the Project
Identify the Resources to fit the Roles
Get the Project team data and preserve in the common folder
Share the names of the associates with the customer (if required)
Prepare the Discoverture Solutions Org. Structure
Share the Discoverture Solutions Org. Structure with the customer
Identify the Single Point of Contact from Discoverture side and communicate his contact
details to customer.
Get the Contact details of Single Point of Contact from Customer Side an share the details
with all Discoverture Solutions associates
Prepare on-boarding Process to be followed for all Discoverture Solutions associate when
they join the Project
Complete the Back ground (BG) checks done?
4. Identify the visa requirements for the associates
Initiate the visa Processing for the associates
Share the details of the associate for whom the visa is getting processed with the customer
Get the Invitation letter(s) from the Customer for Business visa Processing
Define the structure in Project Reporsitory for capturing Time
Get access to the customer time sheet management system, if Discoverture Solutions
associates need to enter timesheets in customer tools also
Give the list of associates to customer to register in their timesheet mgmt.
system - if Discoverture Solutions associates need to enter timesheets in customer tool.
Identify the team training requirements (technical , Domain)
CO-ordinate with training providers and plan for training
Conduct the training to the identified associates
Provide team induction about the customer, business, project, scope,
deliverables, timelines, expectations to all project members
Get access to Discoverture Solutions internal tools, shared folders for the project team
Create a distribution list for the project team in the outlook
Make the resource requirement - data wise - skill wise
Share the resource requirement with the Resource Management Group and Delivery
Management Team
Train all project members on Project specific tools, standards, guidelines,Framework
7 Communication
Define Onsite-offshore communication Process/guidelines (frequency, scope,
lead, mode, objectives)
Define Customer -offshore Team leads (incl. status reports and dashboards)
communication modalities (frequency, scope, lead, mode, objectives)
Define Customer – DSIL PM communication modalities (frequency, scope, lead, mode,
objectives)
Define Customer – Discoverture Solutions Program Manager communication modalities
(frequency, scope, lead, mode, objectives)
Define Offshore (internal) team communication modalities (frequency, scope, lead, mode,
objectives)
Define PM - PL - TM communication modalities (frequency, scope, lead, mode, objectives)
Define Customer CIO/Sr. Manager – Discoverture Solutions Senior Manager communication
modalities (frequency, scope, lead, mode, objectives)
Define onsite team vs. customer communication modalities (frequency, scope, lead, mode,
objectives)
Define the escalation path at the customer side including the names of the associates and
their contact details and the definition of 'when to escalate'
Define the escalation path at the Discoverture side including the names of the associates
and their contact details and the definition of 'when to escalate'
Define the templates to the used for recording the action items
Define the modalities for Agenda
Define the Issue Management Process (including the tool, contents, frequency of update,
frequency of sharing, meeting to track, scope of the issues, track the action items etc., )
Prepare the Status report templates to share with the customer
Prepare the dashboards templates to be shared with the customer at various levels
5. 8.Risk Management
Identification of general risks
Identification of Project specific risks
Prepare the FMEA to record, weight & track the risks
Share the Risk management plan with the customer, to the extent possible
Keep the risk management plan as open document
9. Planning
Make high level project execution Process
Make the detailed Project execution Process
Prepare the Work Break Down Structure ( WBS)
Identify the inputs required from the customer along with the date by which it is required
Identify the actors (whether Discoverture / Customer) for each of the activities in WBS
Prepare the schedule for the activities
Identify the inputs and outputs for each of the activities in the WBS
Prepare the MPP
Review the MPP
Share the MPP with the customer (to the extent possible)
Make the change to the MPP - as suggested by customer
Baseline the MPP
Establish MPP tracking Process (including the mechanism to add additional tasks in MPP over
the period of time)
Establish MPP sharing with the customer process
Identify the owners of MPP (Owner need to update/track MPP)
Identify how to integrate MPP with customer MPP (if customer has separate MPP)
Identify the activities to be performed by third parties along with their expected dates
Communicate this to the third parties OR to the customer explicitly
Identify the major milestones and agree to take sign-off (conduct tollgate review) before
proceeding to the next phase
10 Metrics/SLAs
Are there any SLAs that customer is asking DSIL to follow
Get the definitions, measurement, frequency of the SLAs
Get if there are any penalties/incentives linked to the SLAs
List out the Project metrics that customer wish to see along with frequency
List out the Project metrics need to be collected by the Project team as per QMS
Prepare the data collection templates to collect the data for these metrics & SLA (the data
can also be obtained from automated tools if any.
Identify who need to provide what data for these SLAs
Identify the Frequency & owner to collect the data for Metrics/SLAs
Establish a process to consolidate and communicate them to the customer
Check if the SLAs to be ported in any customer tool
Get access to the tool
Identify to whom the SLAs to be sent at the customer side ?
11 Configuration Mgmt
6. Identify what tool to be used for Configuration mgmt
Identification of artifacts to be kept in there(code, Technical documents, CSP,
tools, utilities, templates & formats, guidelines & standards, Do's & Don'ts)
Check if customer possess the licenses for the tool
Check if Discoverture need to procure the tool or customer provides
If Customer provides, check if this can be accessed from offshore (applicable if
offshore team exists)
Get Licenses to use at offshore, if customer provides the tool
Prepare the total Code check-in /check-out process
Prepare Release Management & code migration Process (build Process)
Prepare Post - release tests/validations
Prepare Branching & Merging Processes
Prepare the process to migrate the code to test environment, Production
environment
If the tools is procured by Discoverture, plan for backup
12 Architecture
Make alternatives in the architecture
Validate the alternatives with tools like QFD or any other similar tool
Present all options with Pros/Cons to the customer
13 Design
Identify the methodology to be followed
Check if the customer specific templates to be followed or Discoverture Solutions templates
Perform Normalization on database design
Design the common services to re-use them in rest of the programs
Perform Prototype and present various UI designs to the customer
print engine is to be used
Prepare the logical database design Document
Prepare the Process design Document
Prepare the UI design document
Prepare the interface design document
Review of all design document
Make all OOAD diagrams
Decide upon framework for logging, security, session handling, scripting & messaging, error
& exception handling services
Prepare High Level design documents
Prepare Low Level design documents
Make the Design Review (internal) before it is sent to the customer
14 Coding & Unit testing
7. Decide if the project can use automated/open source tools for Unit testing (ex:
Junit)
Make the functionality review of the code before going for IT/ST
Is the team following Coding standards from Day one?
create separate scripts for DML & DDL for all database scripts
Have a tool to identify the memory leakages in the code and run thru this during the unit
test of the code
Preparation of Unit test cases and Review of the unit test cases
15 Code Review
Device a detailed code review process (who does it, when , how, record the incidents, track
them to closure etc., )
16 Testing (IT/ST/UAT)
Guidelines for Unit, IT, ST testing with objectives & Dos - Don'ts
Prepare the IT test process
Prepare the ST test process
Preparation of IT test cases
Review of the IT test cases
Preparation of ST test cases
Review of the ST test cases
Ensure that customer makes UAT test cases
Is there any batch routine - if so plan to test the batch operations completely -
for various key dates of the year
Decide on which tools to be used to record the bugs while testing
Decide if customer provides those tools and DSIL need to procure
Have a check list to test the GUI
Perform UI validation separately for consistency
Define High, Med, Low category bugs
Collect the UAT test cases from the customer and use them for ST phase
Plan for performance of the application during the ST phase
Plan to conduct load test for the application during the ST phase
While Planning, allocate time for bug fixing while testing phase
Plan to test the application with variety of browsers
Provide training to the UAT testers before the UAT takes place
Customer need to plan Business users for UAT testing
Decide whether the existing servers will be used for testing or new server will
be procured
Decide if the test server already exists or need to be procured
Decide if the test server will be made available by customer or DSIL need to
procure the server
Get the necessary access to the test server
Check and try to have the test server with similar configuration that of
Production server
Decide whether the test server is used for IT/ST testing ONLY or used for UAT
test ONLY or for IT, ST, UAT
Ensure that the test server is available at least few weeks before start of the
8. testing phase
Ensure that all the versions of the s/w on the test server is same as that of
Production
Check with the customer and decide if the test data can be provided from the
existing production
Decide what is the volume of test data is required
Decide whether Discoverture Solutions need to fetch the test data or Customer Provides the
test data
Decide if the test data provided can be used as it is or need to be masked in view of the
confidentiality
Decide if the test data can be provided multiple times in the testing phase because the data
is likely to be corrupted very much during the test phase and will become unusable for a
long time
Plan for preparing the scripts to extract the test data from the existing (production) server -
if the customer agrees that Discoverture Solutions can take the test data from the existing
server OR plan for export import activity by somebody from DBA knowledge
17. GO-live
Plan for go-live strategy
Identify the various activities to be performed (system readiness, DB readiness, Interface
readiness etc., )to make live
Ensure that all activities are ready
Prepare the checklist to verify the readiness for go-live
Identify the people for playing various roles
Identify the production support team
Have a bug reporting tool to report the bugs during the production
Plan for training to the maintenance team
Prepare the necessary documents
Inform the N&S to archive the Project data and source code (applicable for projects done
from offshore)
Get a formal sign off from the customer
18 Miscellaneous
Once in a week, the team needs to spend few hours in internal training
(either on technical or soft factors or application specific) where few of them
take sessions on application/technology/challenges
Conduct the project introspection meeting (during the project closure)
Conduct the project retrospection meeting (at the middle of the project)
Prepare the defect consolidation logs
Prepare the metrics on monthly intervals and send them to Quality group
Prepare defect retrospection meetings