Document Actions
Planning overview
These pages contain valuable advice on how to build a business data solution.
Following these steps will help structure your progress from an idea to a working system.
Steps
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determine the architecture - the pieces and how they connect
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design the data model - the database structure
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design process model - the user interface and other activities
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develop the product (use the reference tab for help on development)
- deploy and maintain the product
Advice
Advice for vendors and clients: If you are working for a client, consider specifying milestones at the end of each step (even if the steps take less than a day). Each milestone is a point in time when some document or other results (deliverables) will be agreed to by all parties. If you are a software buyer, you should demand these milestones and deliverables as a condition of payment. One of the most frequent causes of runaway expenses in software projects is the failure to demand structured milestones in the contract.
Advice for working for yourself: Treat yourself as a client, and provide the deliverables anyway, even if no one else reads them! That's a great way to keep yourself organized.