Information By Design - Data Warehouse & Integration Solutions

Our solutions are transparent so that every data process is visible and audited to give you confidence in delivery

Our architecture is scalable from the very smallest of information systems to full enterprise solutions

We ensure that all our systems are built for ease of maintenance to reduce the cost and effort required in enhancing your solution

DELIVERY

As well as the solutions we deliver we also ensure that the projects we undertake are managed to ensure that the client is fully aware of the process, the deliverables that come with each process and where in the process their project currently is.

This process is scalable across all solution implementations and ensures that a quality product is delivered at the point of deployment. It also ensures that our clients are fully aware of what process the solution is currently in to allow effective management of the project. The lifecycle starts with a detailed business requirements document that ensures that the deliverable is business focussed and will have a greater chance of acceptance by the business community. Once the requirements are agreed, a process of design, build test and deploy is undertaken. Each of these is described in more detail below:

Business Requirements
The business requirements process is the key driver to all the effort within the solution and ensures that the effort in delivering each solution is focussed around the requirements of the business.

Functional Design
The functional design is a document that links the business requirements to the solution design and documents the data models, and transformation rules when mapping source systems to target systems.

Technical Design
The technical design is the blueprint for development work and is used by the developers when building the system. It will detail all the staging tables and ETL routines required to manage the process of extracting source data, transforming it and loading it into the target data models.

Development
The development process is the actual build and unit test of the technical design and due to the modular nature of the technical design can be distributed across a number of developers.

Testing
Information By Design acknowledges the importance of testing for all systems and the value they add to any client engagement. Testing ensures that the system built is fit for purpose, all outcomes are covered and that the system has been built to the specified standards. Information By Design undertake a multi-phased approach to testing.

Unit Testing

Unit testing ensures that each system component built works to its intended design. Unit tests are carried out in isolation and provide a level of durability that ensures that it delivers the required functionality.

Each developer is required to produce a unit test document that covers each of the processes within the system to show that all outcomes have been covered. These test plans are signed by both the Project Manager and the person responsible for Quality Assurance.

Integration Testing

Once all components have been unit tested, they need to be integrated into system specific workflows. In a multi-developer environment, this is the first at which all the components developed by individual developers are tested end to end. Only a small amount of data will be used during integration testing to help iron out any integration issues without waiting for large volumes of data to be loaded.

System / Performance Testing

Once integration testing has completed the system is ready for its first system load. At this point a representative sample of data should be loaded end-to-end to monitor both performance and for the end report developers to test reports with appropriate amounts of data.

User Acceptance Testing

UAT is conducted by the client prior to accepting the ownership of the system. It is important that the users who conduct user acceptance testing understand the requirements of the system and the data contained within the system.

A UAT issue feedback form is used during this process for users to log issues that have been found. These issues are then managed by the project manager and given a priority and assigned back to the development for validation and correction.

Quality Assurance (QA)

QA is carried out throughout the whole development lifecycle and is driven by the client and the senior representative of Information By Design. The project management office will ensure that all tasks in the project plan are carried out in the correct order and completed, Information By Design will ensure that standards are followed and adhered to and provide on-going support during system development and the client will ensure that all internal standards are followed by the project team and that the required deliverables are of sufficient quality at deployment and handover.

Deployment
Once the system has been signed off by the system owners, it is ready for deployment. This involves packaging up the solution and deploying it to a production environment. An operations manual will be created that will describe the operational components of the system and is specifically aimed at system administrators and data warehouse / BI developers. In addition, a user manual will be created that is aimed at the end-users to ensure that all users understand how to access the system correctly and effectively.