Discuss

We'll talk about...

Collaboration

• Our means of communicating with a preference for video calls to cut down on miscommunication costs
• Our means of deploying code to the client's infrastructure. What access is needed depends on the case:
  • E.g. FTP account
  • E.g. DB user
  • E.g. IAM user
  • E.g. SSH user

Project direction and scope

• Our turnaround time
• Your budget
• Your vision
• Your goals
• Your ideas
• Your requirements
• Your desires in terms of features
• Your desires in terms of the appearance of it
• Your desires in terms of the monetization of it
• Your content (images, text, logo, etc.) to incorporate into it
• Your target audience
• What challenges we might face
• Whether our expertise is a good fit for the project
• Whether we will work on the project
  • We won't take on "million-dollar solutions" like a Google Search clone
  • We won't take on dishonest projects

Technical side of it

• What we can do to increase user engagement
• What we can do to improve the user experience
• What design principles should be factored in
• What user-specific considerations need to be taken into account:
  • Languages spoken
  • Disabilities people have
  • Tasks being performed
• What hardware would be best to run the solution on
• What algorithms can be used to process the input in a reasonable time
• What devices and screen sizes your users primarily use and how we might adjust the layout on the basis of this
• What third-party services will be needed
  • Domain registrar
  • Web hosting provider
• What we will need to integrate the solution with
• What we can do to monetize it
• What means there'll be for you to add, modify, and delete content
• What data loss prevention measures we will need to put into place
• What data quality measures will need to be put into place
• What search engine optimization measures will need to be put into place
• What performance increasing measures will need to be put into place
• What security measures will need to be put into place
• What database scalability measures will need to be put into place

Document

We'll provide a written document, explaining

• Technical implementation details with an emphasis more-so on the reasons for decisions made
• What data is collected from users and for what. This can form the basis of a privacy policy

Comply

• We'll take ethical principles into account
• We'll take industry best practices into account
• We'll take legal requirements into account
• E.g. Software licensing requirements
• E.g. Privacy Act 1988
• E.g. Spam Act 2003
• E.g. Copyright Act 1968
• E.g. Competition & Consumer Act 2020
• E.g. Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 Australian Government
• E.g. Do Not Call Register Act 2006

Research

We'll investigate what the best approach to take is

Plan

We'll come up with proposals for how best to proceed

• E.g. Setting up a headless CMS like Sanity requires a developer initially. Once it's set-up, however, clients can make content updates without the involvement of a developer, cutting down on development costs. Structural changes if needed would still require development involvement

Here's a video showing Sanity CMS in action

Protect

We'll take measures to protect the system from threats

• Authenticating users
• Backing up data
• Encryption
• Hashing
• PWD complexity requirements
• Input sanitization
• JSON web tokens
• Server hardening
• SSL certificate

In an effort to reduce the likelihood of

• Compromised user credentials
• Data loss
• Financial loss
• Reputation damage
• Unauthorized access

Design

We'll come up with a wireframe that outlines the intended appearance of the solution

Develop

We'll write code to satisfy the requirements

Test

We'll take measures to ensure the solution works as intended when users interact with it in intended as well as unintended ways

Showcase

We'll perform a demo, showing how to use the solution provided

Signing off on current work

You’ll have a couple of opportunities to make revisions within the initial budget provided for the project

1. After the first design is completed
2. After the first implementation of the software solution is completed

Throughout the project, will also be asking questions to relevant stakeholders about desired direction to ensure alignment with what's being developed with what's wanted when this is appropriate

Maintain

You’ll have the option to continue utilizing our services post-development of the software solution at a lower cost for ongoing work that might be needed

• Bug fixes
• Cosmetic changes
• New features
• Server configuration changes
• Server software updating