About Us

Nexus approach to system development

Our general approach to managing software projects has developed over many years. The key staff at Nexus have many years experience in:

• Software Systems Analysis
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) techniques
• Project Management
• Object Oriented Programming
• .NET Development

Over the last few years we have developed a system at Nexus which is perfectly suited to the demands of the Internet and Intranet applications. This is a well documented model which all of our staff have been trained in and forms the cornerstone of our development process. We have developed an in-house bespoke software system that allows us to control this process from end to end called NIMS the Nexus Integrated Management System. Through the use of NIMS all of our clients are able to track the progress of development at a very granular level. The system translates required functions into Project Work Items (PWI's), Changes and Bugs.

This has worked exceedingly well for us for large system projects and the method is scalable for all our work. This approach has allowed us to deliver on time and ahead of time regularly.

Contact us to find out more about our specific methods and the individual artefacts that help in the development.

1. A typical medium size project will involve an initial phase where we prepare a business requirements document, this contains the case for change and detail on the systems to develop.
2. After close involvement with the client through a scope of works we would enter into a contractual arrangement to deliver to that scope.
3. At this point a development may either be a two stage or single stage project. The two stage project involves a detailed feasibility and requirements gathering phase as a precursor to ordering the software. The single stage process will involve this requirements gathering as part of the main project and is charged accordingly.
4. At this point we are ready to supply two documents to the client the first is:
   • The Project Charter - this identifies how we will work together and how we will liaise and contact each other what deliverables are required from who and by when and how we deal with change etc. this will be accompanied by a draft project plan.
   • The second document is a detailed set of functions in a Functional Specification, this is written in a tabular for to make it easy to read, understand and amend. This will often be accompanied by "throwaway prototype" screens that allow the client to see the functions visually. Once these two documents are signed off by the client development can begin in earnest.
   • At the same time we will start to develop testing criteria based on the functions that are being identified, Function test is an integral part of our specifications.
5. At the same time as the functional specification development will be ongoing of the database and class model which provides the architectural framework of the software.
6. Through the lifetime of the project we liaise with our clients with regular project meetings and update reports, as a client you will have access to our development server in order to see "progress" and to agree to individual functions along the way, thus reducing risk.
7. Change control and bugs are handled along the way using our tried and tested system and entered immediately by you or us into NIMS. This way they are recorded immediately and provide an audit trail for the project.
8. The software elements are unit tested in house and after successful sign off by developers are passed back to the business analyst team to check against functions and "Use Cases".
9. When Functional tests are complete in house we release a version for User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and after successful sign off by the client projects may be launched.

To find out about our processes and how they might benefit your software project, fill in the contact form on this page now.

Keywords: Project Management, Project charter, Project plan, Progress reporting, Software Quality Assurance Techniques , Defect Tracking, Unit Testing, Source Code Tracing, Technical Reviews, Integration Testing, System Testing, Acceptance Testing, Change Control Best Practice

You can find out more about our working practices by calling Andy on 0800 096 0850 or by contacting us via our contact page.