CUSTOMIZATION REQUESTS

Customization Requests (CRs) can originate either from a casual conversation or a specific need that your team expresses through the feed. Initial discussions take place in the feed before a formal CR is processed in a task.

CR Process Phases

The workflow of a CR goes through 4 basic phases. The handover between Wordbee and client teams is done over the  collaboration space.

PHASE 1: 

QUALIFICATION

Any customization request needs to be qualified to see if it is a good fit for the product. If Wordbee has the resources available to handle the customization request, the CR  is then considered to be  Qualified and a base estimate for the project will be provided.

If the the request is qualified and Wordbee has the resource capacity for the request made, the client will be invited to formalize the request with an initial quote for technical analysis (1 dev day). This than moves the CR to the next phase.

PHASE 2:

ANALISYS

Once the quote for analysis is confirmed, Wordbee will allocate the resources to explore the technical feasibility of the request (requirements to address will be listed, different approaches may be discussed). This phase requires the input of Wordbee and client team(s). The goal is to cover the business case presented by the client team(s) in the best possible way.

The outcome of the analysis should be the specification of a solution proposal that aims at covering the client case with the validation scenarios foreseen*, followed by an accurate estimate for its implementation. If the client agrees with these initial terms, the solution will be presented as a formal development proposal, also known as a Statement of Work (SOW) contract both parties will sign-off.

The Statement of Work (SOW) contract includes clauses about the scope and the workload of the feature development, the terms and conditions of the work to be done and a possible timeline for its implementation.

*clients are encouraged to share the validation scenarios they require for the feature to be considered functional. These are analysed by Wordbee so they can be included in form of conditions of acceptance for the development.

Technical Analysis

Wordbee will use this budget to:

  • explore, evaluate and define a convenient solution approach,
  • estimate the work to be done to implement that solution;
  • define the agenda for the implementation and roll out of that solution.


Formalizing the Request

With the results of the technical analysis, Wordbee will contact you with an estimation of the effort to implement that CR.

  • A quote for the solution proposed and the Statement of Work (SOW) will be shared to evaluate the terms of the CR. 
  • An estimation of the timeline will also be shared, when available.


PHASE 3:

IMPLEMENTATION

This phase covers all activities that have to do with the conceptional work, from feature planning to development and validation, to make the feature part of the tool set available in any of the products developed at Wordbee.

The implementation phase is finished when the feature is considered ready for release. This happens when the validation of the development(s) for the CR is complete. By the end of this phase, a tentative release date can be given, as to when the feature will be included in the productive environment of the client. This date can also be subject to agreement with the client team(s), in order to announce the new feature at a convenient time.

JIRA and Team discussions

The development status is kept documented in the checklist for visibility of the progress:

  • Backlog
  • In progress
  • in QA (Wordbee)
  • ...
  • Done
  • Release ready (tentative date shared, when available)


Preparing the roll out

At the end of this phase, a tentative release date will be provided to coordinate the roll out to production with your team(s).

In case of big projects that depend on several releases, this is a must.

All such details have already been agreed upon in the Statement of Work (SOW), during the analysis phase.


PHASE 4:

Roll out

Once the feature goes live, clients are invited to share their feedback in their "real" environment directly after the release date. 

This inspection period is agreed upon in the Statement of Work (SOW) with two purposes:

  1. Provide the final validation from the client
  2. Make it possible to fast-track any issues that could be encountered in the productive environment, right after the feature is first released.
The goal is to close the CR successfully in a timely manner. If any issues are reported after the inspection period, Wordbee won't be able to ensure capacity for those fixes and the feedback will be handled on best effort approach, as part of the regular Support activities.

Inspection Period

For the quickest intervention possible, any issues found after the release and during the inspection period* need to be raised in the Feed and/or reported through Zendesk.
The ticket references can be attached to the CR Rollout task for tracking purposes.

If no issues are reported during the inspection period, the CR will be successfully closed for further processing. 

*The final date of the inspection period will be set as due date for the CR Rollout task.


Final validation

Once the inspection period is over and/or the reported defects during that period have been amended, we can conclude the feature is working as expected.


This action will then lead to the closing of the CR and any remaining work will be set ready for invoicing.


Make a Request and Check Its Status

Use the Feed

Requests can originate from a casual conversations or specific needs expressed over the collaboration feed.


Follow the Progress

You will be able to call up the status of a given request via the search or the relevant task in the space.


Check the Milestones in the Checklists

Collect all the major points and steps being covered in each phase


Comments Over the Right Task

Comments attached to each phase only refer to the items to be covered in that particular scope (analysis, implementation, roll out)


CRs In a Nutshell

Always take into account the following points when checking the progress of a customization request:

  • Check the progress of each CR in the relevant checklist. Checklists with the steps completed and steps forward are available in the main task and the sub tasks for each phase.
  • When raising a topic related to a CR, use the original channel that originated the request and link the main task or the relative task to the current phase the development is under. Sub-tasks are created based on the progress of the development and provide a more granular overview of the status of the request.
  • Add comments in a way that is easy to filter. Comments entered during project meetings can be easily found with appropriate filters and labels.Store the sample materials in the Space drive. This will make it possible to refer to them in the future. In case new versions are to be used, they will replace the old ones.
  • New scenarios or requirements not linked to the original request may generate additional work that will be analysed on their own, as a follow-up CR.