Thank you for choosing to work with Kurtosys on your digital marketing initiative. In this article you will find details about our project process and what you can expect over the coming months as we build out your custom digital marketing solution.

Your project will be carried out in five phases:

• Kickoff
• Discovery
• Implementation/Development
• User Acceptance Testing
• Go-Live

Read on for detailed information on what each step will entail.

Step 1: Kickoff

This is our opportunity to meet your project team and introduce you to the team members at Kurtosys. We will review what has been outlined in the contract to ensure everyone is aligned on the deliverables, as well as answer any questions you may have about Kurtosys or the process. At the end of the kickoff, both you and Kurtosys should have a clear understanding of what we will be producing, who the stakeholders are, and what to expect going forward.

Step 2: Discovery

We believe that Discovery is the most important phase of any project. This is the time where we work the closest with your team to document in detail all the project requirements. Below is a list of the deliverables your team should expect to receive during this phase:

• Data mapping
  Wireframes – Functional designs that demonstrate placement and data rules
  Visual Designs – Final versions of web page designs for development
• Project Charter
• Functional Requirements
• Project Plan with timeline

There are a number of crucial items we will work through during discovery, specifically in regards to the data access and analysis. It is important that we get access to the data we will be using as quickly as possible so progress is not impeded.   

Depending on the size of your project, this phase can vary in length. This tends to be a very iterative phase of the project, with several rounds of review and feedback as we work towards finalized requirements. Minimizing the feedback turn-around time as much as possible will help make this phase more efficient.

Based on our experience, the better we do working through the requirements during discovery the fewer snags we run into when we move into development. This helps to minimize project risk, as well as risks to the project timeline.

Step 3: Implementation/Development

Kurtosys uses an agile development process that runs in two-week sprints. We will plan out all work for the coming two weeks based on input from your team regarding prioritization of features. The sprints are managed using JIRA, as is the User Acceptance Testing. You will be set up with access to JIRA so you can follow along with the development progress. Additionally, at the end of each sprint we will provide a summary of the work that was accomplished as well as what is prioritized for the following sprint.

Step 4: User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

User Acceptance Testing is crucial to the successful deployment of your new digital marketing solution. We will grant your team access to the staging environment where you will be able to interact with the site and tools to ensure all requirements have been met. JIRA is the preferred method of capturing any bugs or changes that need to be made, but other tools can be made available if needed.

Any requests captured during UAT that do not fall within the scope of the project will be identified and a Change Request with associated fees and impacts to the timeline will be provided prior to any work being done for these particular items.

Step 5: Go-live

Upon completion of UAT (User Acceptance Testing), we will work with your team to schedule the production deployment. Any potential for site downtime is minimal, but we suggest doing this outside of peak business hours when possible. Upon completion, Kurtosys will do a thorough round of testing to ensure all functionality is intact. Upon completion we will ask you to confirm that the site(s) is functioning properly, at which point the project will be complete.

Common causes for project delays

Below are some areas we have found to be common reasons for project delays. Avoiding some of these issues will help to streamline the project and ensure we stick to the time table outlined in the project plan.

• Receipt of data samples
• Changes to the data format
• Data made available in a machine-readable format
• Design Iterations
• Feedback Loops