Total Quality Specc’ing (TQS)

Did you know that the success of your development project is determined well before any coding starts?

It’s all to do with the people. Do the developers have a good understanding of your requirements?

Even
if you have prepared as detailed a specification as you possible can,
this only really guarantees one thing….that you understand it!

Outsourcing quality specifications should always
be prepared by the people who are going to do the development and be
presented back to you. That way you will get the true answer (not the
sales pitch) to the question you really want to know ‘Do you really
understand what we want?’.

For us at DataArt, knowledge transfer to the actual developers who
will be working on your project and a clear definition of requirements
is the most crucial step. If we don’t understand it, we can’t start
working for you. Simple as that!

Over the years we have developed a knowledge transfer methodology that we call TQS or Total Quality Spec’ing.

TQS helps to ensure that our developers, (who will actually be your
developers for a period of time) understand your project and have the
knowledge to deliver it. It also ensures that there is a clear
understanding of your requirements on both sides. All of this is
documented and agreed before the development starts.

DataArt believes that the most critical part of the project takes place before the actual development starts.

TQS has 5 main stages

Stage 1

Onsite Knowledge Transfer Meetings – Your office or ours?

Our technical architects as well as the lead developer of your
project will spend an intensive period of time onsite with you to
thoroughly understand your requirements. We can work from just ideas or
build on the documents you have already created. As we are the
outsourcing experts we know the questions to ask to make sure the
information that normal gets left out of specifications, doesn’t.

To support the text based specification documents, all of these
meetings are recorded to DVD for ‘your’ developers to watch. This helps
to ensure that the maximum amount of knowledge has been captured.
Stage 2

Preparation of Specification Documents

Our technical architect and lead developer will then spend a period
of time to prepare the actual specification deliverables. These will
vary for each project but typically include the following items:

  • Functional Specification Document
  • Technical Specification Document
  • FLASH prototype of ‘key’ system areas
  • DVDs of Knowledge Transfer meetings
  • Full Development Plan
Stage 3

Presentation of Specification Documents

Once the documents have been prepared we then spend at least a day
presenting them back to you. Yes, that’s right! We take you through
page-by-page and explain everything. This allows us to do two important
things:

  1. Make the bulk of the changes to the documents reducing the amount of work you need to do
  2. Ensures that we don’t get the classic situation of people reading
    the first 10 pages thoroughly and then ‘skim-reading’ the rest.

Following this presentation the next version of the specification documents will be sent to you for you to inspect.
Stage 4

Refinement of Specification Documents

There is a normal period of refinement of the specification between
us. These iterations make sure that we agree on all the fine points and
that we are both happy.
Stage 5

Delivery of Full Specification Documents & Accurate Development Proposal

The full set of specification documents will be given to you with a
detailed accurate development proposal. This will give you the
time-plan for the development and the actual costs involved.

And now development can start!

TQS is designed to make your life easier and make your project a success!

Why don’t you give us a call or email us for more information? You
can even speak to other customers of ours who have gone through the
process!

+44 (0) 20 7099 9464 or uk-sales@dataart.com

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