Development Methodology

Girikon, a Salesforce Implementation Partner has developed and has the experience with the Application Implementation Method (AIM). We have coupled with Agile Project Management methodology to deliver a best practice program management methods for all its customers.

Girikon Development and Implementation methodology AIM/Agile consists of a set of disciplined processes which are iterated across the implementation life cycle phases. We have a structured approach which helps accelerating the overall implementation process, with the assistance of predefined process workflows and software templates. This enables us to ensure project deliverables are delivered on time with quality outcomes a guarantee. Over the many years’ experience, we built out our capabilities to consolidate and recommend intelligent workflows in the traditionally non-value-added areas.

Girikon finds that Salesforce Implementations executed with a well-planned and structured framework set our customers up for success including effective data migration and integration strategies, limiting production interruptions, high user adoption, and a speedier return-on-investment (ROI).

The Salesforce Implementation approach is embedded in Girikon’s company values. We understand the following customer needs:

• A quick realisation of business benefits
• A harmonised and collaborative requirements and design process
• Building and implementing for scalability and future requirements in mind.

A preliminary project plan at the proposal stage provides customers with a view on the time and effort proposed. The project plan is reviewed and revised at the Pre Project-Planning stage (kick-off) and then the Discovery phase. The phased implementation plan brings together the strategic objectives and goals and a road map including all deliverables.

Implementation Phases

Included in the overall Salesforce Implementation Strategy the plan is broken into five phases:

• Pre Planning & Scoping
• Analysis & Business Requirement Phase
• Design Phase
• Development Phase
• Move to Production

The phases are key to a successful implementation. The Pre-Planning and Scoping phases are detailed in nature and provide the prospective customer with the assurance of a well thought through plan, estimate and delivery timeline.

Pre Planning and Scoping Phase

During this Phase, the Salesforce Implementation team defines the scope, parameters and estimates for the project to required level detail in order to establish the KPIs to measure the progress. This phase also considers the governance parameters and sets up the communication paths and project reporting process.

The deliverables for this phase usually include, some detailed understanding of the prospective customer’s requirements, an implementation road map and high-level project milestones.

Analysis & Business Requirement Phase

Sometimes this phase is also referred to as discovery. During this phase the Salesforce Implementation team will identify and document the business processes which will be impacted by the implementation and assigns the a cross-functional team suited to the project for the following activities:

• Review and updates to the current Business Process
• Understand and document all pain points from the stakeholders and users
• Understand the current reporting regime and requirements for future exposure of the data
• Implementation of a a fit-gap analysis model taking into consideration of the delivered baseline functions
• Determine then prepare relevant artefacts including detail business processes, reports, dashboards interfaces that must be developed or modified to support the business process in the new environment

Design Phase

Girikon’s Design Phase is an Agile process where our Salesforce Implementation team will stand-up the core system then designs using a combination of design artefacts including High Level Design docs, Use Cases/User Stories and a Prototype Demo environment. A prototype demo environment becomes the main source where the business requirements are reviewed and met, design specifications are established then developed to ensure customer buy in, stakeholder and user adoption and a collaborative approach to design. Our aim is that the customer can visualise the system and make important decisions in the prebuild phase.

The information gathered and artefacts developed in this phase are leveraged in the Development Phase below. During this phase the team would conduct showcases or protypes demo of the solution and collaborating with you to determine what would be included in the Development Phase and the basic features of the product.

Development Phase

Based on the Business Requirements, Designs and the agreed deliverables, Girikon’s Salesforce Consultants would then produce a detailed solution design keeping in mind the solution’s operational aspects. The Solution envisioning step would consider the following:

• Gaps identified
• Investigate process level changes
• Development deliverables

Based on the Solution Envisioning Step above the Girikon Salesforce Consulting team would proceed with Agile sprint-based iterations and only proceed once they have customer approval.

Development of the solution is then developed within the specified technical environment detailed in Girikon’s deployment process documentation i.e. Sandbox, Pre-Release etc. with ongoing project reviews included in the governance framework agreed to during the analysis phase. Girikon’s development phase incorporates and endeavours to refine the organisational changes, business process and incorporates training documentation. System infrastructure including environments, data management strategies are developed during this phase in line with business requirements.

Move to Production

The main objective of the Production Phase or sometimes known as UAT and Go-Live is to ensure that the solution is complete, and quality tested for the final deployment into production. Shortly after the final design and development of the system components have been completed and approved, the solution would be subjected to functional, unit and integration testing also known as cross enterprise testing to ensure end-to-end integration is functioning as expected. The production environment commissioning and the required data migration exercises will be conducted during this phase. Cutover Planning is essential step within this phase and is documented and agreed to in collaboration with the customer to limit business impact.

User training documentation including scheduled formal training conducted as agreed to by the training schedule and in line with the application rollout sequence.

User acceptance is performed during this stage by the customer in readiness for the move to the production and acceptance certificate signed off.