Our project managers use an iterative process to implement sections of code from the members of a programming team into a cohesive whole and professional final product. When the tasks assigned to a coder have been completed, his or her work is submitted to the project manager who tests it individually, sends to other members of the team for debugging, and fits it into the code hierarchy of the development plan for implementation. As all modules and sections of the program are finished, the project manager integrates and refines the final product for an initial test run. All members of the development team will be called upon to review and test the code of others, and are encouraged to submit corrections, refinements, and patches. This process is instructive, and during this stage of review we focus on building inline documentation to the code to make it easy to understand. As a final working prototype is developed, team members may find their role changing as they are required to develop new aspects to the program that went undocumented or unplanned previously. The implementation stage often leads to modifications in the code that were not foreseen in the initial stages of development but are required to make the product function smoothly in its native environment. These modifications may include how the software calls and processes variables, interacts with the base CMS or database, or in correcting output and display issues.
Our software development teams work in cycles to bring a product to completion, which is why we prefer the Spiral Model for development. The first cycle is the individual coding of the sections of the application. The second cycle includes the assembly of the prototype and documentation of its functions. In the third cycle, we augment the original design with additional code required to make it function optimally in the native context. The fourth cycle requires slimming down and cleaning up the code to make it internally cohesive. The result is a finished software product ready for testing and deployment. Touch and Click has implemented this pattern across a wide range of application development requirements and found it to be most successful. Nevertheless, the most important factors remain the skill of our project managers and talent of our programming teams. Our project managers are required to meet regularly with our account managers and occasionally with clients to deliver progress reports on development. If our clients are also located remotely, we can arrange conference calls and web meetings regularly to report on progress, updates, and news.
When a final prototype of a project has been completed, all members of the team will work on preliminary testing, optimization, and documentation to prepare a demo for the client. At this point all bugs should ideally have been removed and the software is working according to plan. However, as concept and result may at times be different in expectation, our initial client feedback process often leads to minor adjustments, improvements, and changes that need to be sent back to the design team for implementation. After this feedback has been received and the application modified, we consider the software ready for pre-release. The prototype is once again sent to the client for conformation, and a further round of changes may be needed to perfect the design. When this feedback process is complete, we will turn the software over to the testing department for full-scale, hands-on implementation in a real time environment. The programming team will stay on call to make any changes that may arise, but we may also scale back the team to a project manager and set of core programmers for the final release of the application.
For more information about software development at Touch and Click, please contact one of our customer service representatives directly with your proposals.
