Development
LISAsoft's development methodology combines Feature Driven Development (FDD) and the allocation of a highly skilled and experienced development team. The combination of these factors enables LISAsoft to deliver a quality software product within a tight timeframe.
The FDD approach is quite simple and involves five main processes:
LISAsoft's programming approach follows the XP approach to software development. Extreme Programming is a discipline of software development based on values of simplicity, communication, feedback, courage, and respect. In practise, these core values translate into a strong testing methodology, small tightly-coupled development teams, high levels of engagement with the Customer, constant near-deployment readiness, and a product that is efficient and maintainable.
In XP, testing is every bit as important as the coding itself. Unit tests are written before the code they test to ensure that the problem is well enough defined for the programmer to know when it has been solved. Acceptance tests are written during design and brainstorming sessions to ensure that everyone involved, from programmers to users, shares a common understanding of the functionality to be developed.
The XP philosophy knows that programmers often don’t have the domain knowledge required to solve the needs of the user. In order to do this the programmers, not just the managers, need to engage and listen to the Customer, and must be ready to provide feedback and help improve the customers own understanding of her problem.
Like FDD, XP is an Agile Development Methodology. It focuses on short development iterations that result in a stable system or application at the end of each iteration. By following this model, the system can be ready to deploy, with a single iteration for packaging and release, at the end of every development iteration.
XP values simplicity and embraces change. This encourages programmers to write code that can be easily read and understood not only by other programmers on the team, but any programmer that has taken the time to review the design documentation. This produces an application that can be enhanced and maintained by any strong development team.
LISAsoft utilises highly experienced development teams in order to ensure the success of our projects and the quality of the outcome. Our teams are experienced in the use of the technologies proposed and the LISAsoft development methodology, eliminating the additional project start-up time that would be incurred if less familiar technologies and methodologies were employed.
We make the project stages as granular as feasible. The goal of this is to improve testing, client confidence and acceptance of the solution. To this end we ensure regular but unobtrusive involvement of the customer in testing and feedback in a RUP iterative style development of the functional set. This way the customer can set their own level of involvement beyond the minimum required for success of the project.
This improves confidence in the project as we regularly release new versions to the QA and production environments. This also allows for a very controlled and gradual integration of the system.
The FDD approach is quite simple and involves five main processes:
- Develop an Overall Model
Detailed walkthroughs of the scope of the system are developed by one or more small teams and submitted for peer review and discussion. The results of this discussion will be a single model, potentially a merge of multiple working models, will be developed for the system. - Build a Feature List
The overall model is used to identify and document a list of features. This is done by decomposing the overall model into a number of subject areas, which are then decomposed into business activities, each with a sequence of steps. These steps form the list of features. - Plan By Feature
The development plan is described by prioritising features or sets of features, and assigning them to team leads or programming groups. - Design By Feature
A group of features constituting a development time of a fixed interval, typically two or four weeks, is selected, and a design package produced for each feature. This includes detailed sequence diagrams, class and method descriptions and refinements to the overall model. The design is then reviewed by the team. - Build By Feature
After a successful design has been developed, the feature is built. Each feature must pass unit tests and a code review before being incorporated into the main build.
LISAsoft's programming approach follows the XP approach to software development. Extreme Programming is a discipline of software development based on values of simplicity, communication, feedback, courage, and respect. In practise, these core values translate into a strong testing methodology, small tightly-coupled development teams, high levels of engagement with the Customer, constant near-deployment readiness, and a product that is efficient and maintainable.
In XP, testing is every bit as important as the coding itself. Unit tests are written before the code they test to ensure that the problem is well enough defined for the programmer to know when it has been solved. Acceptance tests are written during design and brainstorming sessions to ensure that everyone involved, from programmers to users, shares a common understanding of the functionality to be developed.
The XP philosophy knows that programmers often don’t have the domain knowledge required to solve the needs of the user. In order to do this the programmers, not just the managers, need to engage and listen to the Customer, and must be ready to provide feedback and help improve the customers own understanding of her problem.
Like FDD, XP is an Agile Development Methodology. It focuses on short development iterations that result in a stable system or application at the end of each iteration. By following this model, the system can be ready to deploy, with a single iteration for packaging and release, at the end of every development iteration.
XP values simplicity and embraces change. This encourages programmers to write code that can be easily read and understood not only by other programmers on the team, but any programmer that has taken the time to review the design documentation. This produces an application that can be enhanced and maintained by any strong development team.
LISAsoft utilises highly experienced development teams in order to ensure the success of our projects and the quality of the outcome. Our teams are experienced in the use of the technologies proposed and the LISAsoft development methodology, eliminating the additional project start-up time that would be incurred if less familiar technologies and methodologies were employed.
We make the project stages as granular as feasible. The goal of this is to improve testing, client confidence and acceptance of the solution. To this end we ensure regular but unobtrusive involvement of the customer in testing and feedback in a RUP iterative style development of the functional set. This way the customer can set their own level of involvement beyond the minimum required for success of the project.
This improves confidence in the project as we regularly release new versions to the QA and production environments. This also allows for a very controlled and gradual integration of the system.