Digital Marketplace Services Service Definition

Transcription

1 Digital Marketplace Services Service Definition Arrk Limited Manchester Science Park Pencroft Way Manchester M15 6JJ Tel: Fax: Registered In England No VAT No

2 Table of contents 1 Service Overview Cloud Services Design and Development Pricing About Arrk Other Information Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 2 of 16

3 1 SERVICE OVERVIEW Implementing Cloud Services is more than just hosting your applications on servers running in a data centre outside of your premises. The full potential of the Cloud can only be realised if the applications are architected, designed and developed to leverage cloud services in the right way. Arrk helps customers to build cloud based services, for example; Design and develop enterprise scale web applications Integrate existing services / applications with Cloud Services Converting existing web applications to cloud based Software As A Service (SaaS) products We work closely with business and internal IT teams to help create successful solutions with our end to end development services. We combine flexible Agile engineering practices and expertise in leading technology with a valuedriven pragmatism and deliver as fast as possible using distributed development teams. Our approach ensures we deliver on time and with the highest levels of quality and predictability and we build long-lasting, flexible applications. The systems we build typically need to be massively scalable and highly available and accessed by millions of users over any channel and any device so have to be easy to use and highly responsive. We focus on getting innovative software in to the hands of users as fast as possible. By shrinking time to market and embracing change, we ensure you can respond rapidly to market changes and sustain competitive advantage. We help our clients with their software engineering challenges, whether we are implementing a new digital platform, modernising a highly complex legacy application environment, or designing and deploying a new core processing system. We use modern development languages and tools to ensure high levels of automation and quality and reduced time to market. By using advanced languages, methods and automation tools we can ensure high levels of quality and the quickest time to market allowing our customers to ensure a rapid return on their investment. 'Holy Trinity' of web design We believe that Cloud Services, especially those which are design for use by Customers, have a unique set of challenges that consequently bring together three different disciplines: High-quality creative end user experience design Strategic and tactical business requirement analysis & innovation Leading edge technical software engineering These three disciplines are sometimes referred to as 'the Holy Trinity of cloud design'. Since Arrk's inception we have worked to develop methodologies, processes and capabilities that today allow us to deliver technologies that unite these disciplines Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 3 of 16

4 Getting the user experience right Users typically have a preferred way of using and interacting with web applications based on intuition and experience. Building these preferences into a design can strongly amplify brand values and preserve or enhance the profile of the site, creating a strong USP. Usability, interaction, personalisation and creative design values are critical factors in determining how users will respond to an application. Ultimately they will impact strongly on the success or failure of any digital application, particularly self-service applications. To be effective the user experience design must be at the centre of creative thinking for a digital application throughout all phases of development. It must also be continually monitored and optimised after deployment. The most effective way to do this is to ensure that users are involved in the development process from the outset rather than waiting until the end to start usability testing. Crucially technical and creative teams must work closely together to understand each other's perspectives so that contemporary technologies can be used appropriately to enhance the user experience rather than limiting it. Requirements analysis and innovation Increasingly we are moving towards fully integrated Digital Applications which share a common platform with access to databases, business logic and legacy systems through API s an Middleware. Our philosophy is to integrate digital projects fully into the business processes of Arrk Customers to fully maximise the benefits of digital applications and initiatives and help provide your customers with an end to end holistic, omni-channel experience. Such integration often results in Arrk engaging with Customers to strategically re-align and re-engineer existing business processes optimise the customer experience and maximise the business benefits of implementation. Technology design and innovation The engineering of robust, high performing, and secure enterprise scale cloud based applications often themselves tightly integrated with complex data oriented back-end business systems is our bread and butter. We believe in making as much use as possible of the ever maturing set of standards, frameworks and products for commodity services, so we do not re-invent the wheel or spend time and money which could be better focused developing functionality that delivers a business advantage. We are not wedded to any one product vendor and our experience and understanding of the wider software market allows us to utilise the most appropriate package to fulfil the task, whatever the source. Harmonious Integration The key to the harmonious integration of the three different disciplines is a solid and practical integrated Delivery Methodology. Our methodology is especially tuned to the needs and peculiarities of each different activity and being focused on digital and cloud based application development, it aims to accelerate time-to-benefits whilst ensuring enterprise scalability and manageability. The advantage of the Arrk development lifecycle to our Customers is that it concentrates on activities and deliverables which are specifically relevant to digital applications using an iterative delivery method. More importantly it is very easy for the end user to understand, therefore increasing stakeholder engagement and reducing costly acceptance issues following development Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 4 of 16

5 2 CLOUD SERVICES DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT To deliver high quality cloud services, Arrk has adopted a combination of proven best practice techniques and methodologies to develop projects which deliver the real benefits sought by the organisation. Figure 1 Arrk Cloud Services Delivery Process Through this proven process, Arrk adopts the tools and technologies and methods appropriate to the project and customer environment (see figure 2) 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 5 of 16

6 Figure 2 Cloud Service Design and Development Tools and Methods Stage 1 Initial Concepts & Business Case To support this stage of the process, Arrk have created a unique approach called EmbArrk. EmbArrk can be summarised as; A structured process framework to help bring focus and direction to any new Cloud / digital initiative A set of iterative, focused and engaging activities to Help generate a shared understanding of the problem Help form a team around a shared project vision Reach consensus as to the way forward Flexible and adaptable to different contexts, needs and budgets Outcomes from the process would typically include Estimated and prioritised business requirements in order to cost and shape a further development project to deliver business value A high level release plan, a road map, user stories, visual prototypes, and a proposal for next steps 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 6 of 16

7 The exact outcomes from each EmbArrk engagement will be agreed at a high level as part of the early stages of the process Resulting in a common understanding of the business value, the proposed high level processes and what the result might look like, as well as a road map of how to get there 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 7 of 16

8 EmbArrk can be provided as a specific stand-alone service, see Arrk s Discovery Service for more information. Stage 2 High Level Solution Design & Product Backlog Arrk does a deep dive into the solution proposition and three items required for the solution implementation receive special focus. The technical team creates the high level solution design based on the architecture created during Stage 1. The testing team creates the test strategy and firms up the test architecture for the solution. Product Owner creates the product backlog by exploding the epics into user stories (which capture all the functional details required as part of the solution). The user stories would also consider the non-functional requirements and UI mock-ups as applicable to ensure completeness. The stories are relatively sized based on complexity to assess the backlog size for the solution and help release planning. Arrk collaborates with the customer to inform on an ongoing basis about deliverables and timelines. Stage 3 Iterative Sprint Based Cloud Service Development This is the implementation phase and involves the development and testing of the features. The prioritised user stories with acceptance criteria are iteratively delivered in small releasable chunks after successful demos to the business stakeholders. Figure 3 Cloud Service features being delivered Arrk ensures quality control and code reliability by unit-level automation (e.g. JUnit automation), peer reviews, code analysers and practices like Test-Driven Development. This coupled with test automation ensures that what gets delivered to the customer meets the most stringent quality standards. Continuous Integration practices followed at Arrk ensures that problems get exposed 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 8 of 16

9 earlier rather than later. For each project a definition of done checklist is agreed, this checklist support the quality process and helps consistent output to be delivered across disparate teams Figure 4 Example definition of done The Software Quality Analyst (SQA) regularly audits projects for compliance to software development processes and practices. All deviations are tracked to closure. The team indulges in process-improvement initiatives like Retrospectives and defects root-cause analysis to improve the deliverables and foster better collaboration within team and with the customer. Stage 4 Pre-Release Testing This is a consolidation phase and one focused on Regression Testing for the solution as a whole. Backed primarily by Automation with complementing rigorous manual tests ensures that the solution as a whole meets the customer requirements and expectations. Tests cover the functional and non-functional requirements of the customer and various types of tests may include those for regression, multi-browser, usability, performance, security and so on. The intent expressed within the test strategy and as approved by the customer is verified as conformant within this phase. Stage 5 Transition to Live 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 9 of 16

10 We have worked extensively on deploying large scale solutions across complex, multi-tiered environments. As part of the deployment services, Arrk offers expertise on the following key areas of the deployment process; Capacity Planning Cloud Management Tools Deployment Automation Automated Backups Auto Scaling DevOps Continuous Delivery Content Distribution Network Cloud Monitoring Amazon Web Services (AWS) As part of this service Arrk can work closely with internal IT teams to support any transition to live as required. Arrk are also available to provide consultancy / education directly to internal IT teams to further monitor and manage the infrastructure using an appropriate set of cloud management tools. Stage 6 Product Management Product Management is a critical stage / role within the cycle of evolving your Cloud Service. Correctly embedded within the organisation, this helps ensure the right prioritisation is given to adding features (functional and non-functional) based on business value The Product Manager / Product Owner (PO) is the owner of the product from all perspectives. The PO is the single point of contact for the business team to discuss about the requirements to be catered by the product as well as by the implementation team to get clarifications for any doubts about the product. PO also takes up the competitor analysis if need be and then decide the features / functionalities required in the product to attain the business requirements. The PO deals with: Customers / users / business stakeholders to understand the product requirements Discovering which set of users want what featured by when and also whey are the featured required Prioritisation of the features based on various factors Presentation of the product vision to the implementation team and senior business stakeholders Detailing of the features and planning for implementation Responsibility to keep the product profitable (ROI) Acceptance / rejection of the features built by the implementation team Negotiation with various aspects o For requirements and scope - customers / users / business stakeholders 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 10 of 16

11 o For scope and priority with implementation team Arrk can support organisations during this stage through the involvement of its consultants or help train an organisations own staff to fulfil this role. Project and Programme Governance Project Planning : Project Management Plan is prepared which documents the strategy to execute the project based on Kickoff Meeting. Project Plan consists of; Life Cycle Estimates Test Plan Review plan consisting of technical reviews Project review mechanism Quality assurance mechanism Quality objectives and metrics mechanism The Plan is prepared, reviewed, approved and shared with team Project Monitoring and Control : Daily stand up meeting with the team Weekly reviews by the Delivery Manager Weekly progress review with the Customer Monthly status review Project board review 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 11 of 16

12 Project progress is monitored to track project progress against goals. These meetings track Task Progress, Effort, Review status, Testing Status, Milestone progress, Metrics, Quality Assurance reports, Risk and issues. Actions are planned to bring back deviations under control Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 12 of 16

13 In the Monthly Project Board Meetings emphasis is given on the scope achieved in the sprints completed with remaining stories to be completed. The customer is able to view progress made against the budget spend and would be able to prioritise functionality so that maximum value can be derived from the program. Productivity of the team is achieved by continuous monitoring of Focus Factor (Story points per person day) and finding means to improve it in the Retrospective meetings. Quality of stories delivered is monitored by % of Story points accepted to ensure quality work is produced in every sprint. Change Control : The customer always adds changes as stories in the backlog. In the Sprint Planning Meeting, the Product Owner will prioritise stories and assign them to a Sprint based on the capacity of the team. Changes are integral part of Scrum Methodology where customer can see deliverables, make and control changes so that project can meet budget targets Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 13 of 16

14 3 PRICING Assuming the bulk of work is done offshore, we would apply a blended rate of between 150 and 295 blended rate 2014 Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 14 of 16

15 4 ABOUT ARRK Arrk is a software engineering company with core competency in 3 areas: Building easy to use digital applications and platforms Using high performing engineering practices Through dedicated, distributed customer teams Our preferred method of development is based on our own unique amalgam of Agile, Lean and Kanban practices within a Prince2 type governance process. We can merge these practices with more waterfall based processes used by some of our customers. We prefer to automate much of the testing, continuous integration and build and deployment pipelines. Our development skillsets encompass a broad range of technologies including the Microsoft technology stack,.net, Java and J2EE, Rails, Grails, Cloud based solutions and Mobile Development. Arrk undertakes regular research and development. Recent research (and development) has included: Internet of Things Technology Practically Applied The Future of Open Sourced Based Digital Architectures The Use of ibeacons in Retail Stores of the Future PhoneGap for Rapid Mobile Development Lessons Learned from DevOps Implementations A Journey into ScrumBan Agile Maturity Digital Maturity The Cross Browser Testing Conundrum We regularly publish blogs on our R&D projects. Those for general consumption can be found at: Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 15 of 16

16 5 OTHER INFORMATION Your primary contact at Arrk for this service is; Ian Southward Arrk Limited Greenheys Centre Manchester Science Park Manchester M15 6JJ Arrk Ltd All Rights Reserved Page 16 of 16