BUS402: Project Management

Hang on a minute, you're not finished yet!

Okay, the project's ready, development has finished and it's been thoroughly tested. But you still have to roll it out to a client who's going to use it in anger. This is the heart-in-the-mouth time when all your hard work is really put to the test.

Prior to launch you have a (relatively short) period to ensure that everything is ready to go and the your project is in a fit state to be released. Leading up to the launch you'll want to do some final testing and plan the release of the product into the live environment where it is to be used. A strong methodical process is important at this point so that you avoid any last minute hitches.

Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing forms an important and separate phase from previous testing efforts. Unlike the functional or technical testing, acceptance testing focuses purely on the "acceptance" of the product. Do the clients want it ? This is the pay-off in a commercial project, where the cheques are signed and the money changes hands.

If you have a formalised project you should probably define some acceptance tests earlier in the project, probably in the design phase and signed them off with your client. You can look at your (SMART) requirements and establish a set of tests from them that will prove your product fulfils its goals. This could be as simple as a checklist or as complicated as you like.

Release Control

When you release a product 'into the wild' you will need to know what you released, to whom and when. This may seem trivial but you'll want to keep track of things so you can make fixes and changes as the customer discovers problems (and they will!).

These are the things you typically need to track for each release:

• The version number or identifier of the release
  
• The date and time of the release
  
• The purpose of the release (maintenance, bug fix, testing etc)
• For each component within the release
  
  • the name and version number of the component
  • the date it was last modified

Here is an example:

Source: Nick Jenkins, https://learn.saylor.org/pluginfile.php/5749378/mod_page/content/3/BUS402-1.5-projectPrimer-CCBYNCSA.pdf
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