The JMarc Development Process

(1) DISCOVERY

JMarc will discuss your ideas about your project.  Gathering preliminary information about your objectives, needs, desired results, peer/competitor sites you like or dislike, and more enables us to analyze your project to provide the right direction.

We focus on your specific needs and ask the questions necessary to gather a full picture of the project.  In addition, we often ask you to explore prior projects and competitor solutions to identify what you like, what you dislike, and what you might want to use moving forward.

(2) ROAD MAP

JMarc will facilitate a set of meetings that takes all of the ideas from the discovery phase and creates a full mockup, or Road Map of the end solution.  The Road Map includes mockup versions of every screen and report of the application and all associated rules and needs.

The road map phase fills the role of “requirements gathering” but with considerably more visual input on how screens will look and function.  This allows your feedback early in the process, prior to application coding, saving considerable time and costly rework loops.

In addition, the road map phase allows the project to be organized into multiple builds or releases with an overview of development choices and costs.

The completion of the mockup phase is a PowerPoint slide deck that maps out the entire application and it will be used as the blueprint for the next phase.

(3) RAPID PROTOYPYING

Developing the solution based on the mockup. JMarc utilizes a rapid prototyping model where multiple, iterative releases are provided for testing and review.  This process allows for additional input and adjustments to be made as the solution is built, resulting in a more powerful finished application. 

In addition, this model can include a wider group of users to see the application as it is built and tailor-make the solution to fit the business needs.  In any application development project, staying close to the end user is extremely valuable. The rapid prototyping model has proven to be the strongest application development cycle of the many that JMarc has worked with in over twenty years of information technology consulting.

As the rapid prototyping model reaches the finish, the deployment of the application begins to resemble an enhanced version of the normal, proven and predictable build cycle.  This eases concerns and issues that can arise in other deployment models.

(4) FULL SUPPORT

JMarc deploys and supports our custom solutions. This includes: hosting, maintenance, enhancements, and ongoing support.  The solution can be enhanced and have additional cycles of ROAD MAP & RAPID PROTOTYPING as needed to grow and adapt to changing business conditions.

JMarc has clients that host solutions internally where we provide as-needed ad hoc support and clients that utilize our hosting environment for complete support.  When we host solutions, we utilize the industry leading Amazon Cloud environment and our own support staff.

(5) CHANGE MANAGEMENT

For any system changes, JMarc utilizes our own Code Tracking system to define and track the changes.  Large system changes may require a new Road Map to be created, while other changes can be handled with the code tracking system.