Our Process

BoltAffect follows a process to ensure we meet your needs through collaboration, responding to changes, and always focusing on delivery of working software for your company.

Plan. Build. Extract Value. Repeat.

We work with you in small iterations called prototypes. Each prototype is designed to give you and your organization some value. Prototypes take 2-4 weeks to plan, build, test, and deploy. We collect feedback and then we repeat the cycle as often as required.

We've deployed software into all sorts of environments and we will do what it takes to get the job done. We are not afraid to get on the production floor, office, or boardroom to make sure your software is smoothly integrating with your team. We make sure you and your people have what they need.

Plan

Listen and gather requirements.

Design & Build

Implement the plan through design, development, and testing.

Launch

Your website is updated with all the goodies from the Design & Build stage.

Feedback

Gather feedback from you, your customers, and analytics to make sure we got it right.

Beth Honshell

Project Coordinator

Beth is a partner and leads up Client Care, where she works with enterprises to implement lean product management, user-centered design, and extreme programming at scale.

Project Principles

Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools

Processes and tools are great but we don't let them get in the way. Communication is fluid and can happen when a need arises, regardless of the when the next meeting is scheduled.

Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation

We streamline documentation and don't get bogged down in minutiae. Focusing on user stories lets us deliver working software in weeks, not fancy documentation in months. (Though we do include user documentation on each demo call.)

Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation

"Normal" projects have the customer negotiate a project before it begins and once it's done. We think that's terrible. Our customers are engaged and collaborate throughout the development process. Ensuring we meet their needs.

Responding to Change Over Following a Plan

Projects change because we come up with better ideas as we go. Changes always improve a project since changes provide additional value.

1. Initial Consultation

Our multidisciplinary team will learn about your high-level business goals and challenges to ensure our solutions deliver value quickly and provide a foundation for scalable growth.

Beth

Project Coordinator

Dan

Senior Engineer

Nate

Senior Engineer

Chris

Marketing & Content Architect

Serena

Graphic Designer

REQUIREMENTS & BUDGET

  1. Budget Based Planning

We start with the end in mind. So we meet with you to determine both your budget and what you are trying to accomplish. If you don't already have a budget we can help you determine one. We will then organize your requirements into a project plan.

Lean

We don't architect and design stuff that will never be built because it is outside of affordability. We only plan for the items that actually fit in the budget.

Transparent

We build a project tracking board to help you visualize the progress on the project. During the project we review this with you weekly.

Agile

Change your project scope at any time, or based on customer or employee feedback. Because we're committed to the budget and not a rigid set of features we welcome change.

CONSTRUCTION

  1. Design and Build Prototype

We design and build a usable piece of software that's valuable to your company.

Design

We will design something bespoke, work with your designer, select from pre-built templates, or a combination of all those options.

Engineering

Your Principal Engineer will oversee the design patterns and overall architecture of the software we employ.

Development

We will bring your designs and business logic to life to form a working piece of software.

SHEPHERD TO PRODUCTION

  1. Review and GO LIVE

All of our work is done on a development server where you and your team will get to review everything, do hands-on demos, and complete training. We then deploy your system to the production servers.

Hands-On Review

As soon as we build something it gets sent to a test environment for you and your team to put your hands on it.

Documentation

Your Principal Engineer will send you an email with details including links, screenshots, and descriptions of everything built.

Training

We do weekly update and training calls with you to go over the documentation and features of the system. Once you approve the work we deploy it.

ANALYZE

  1. Gather Feedback

We gather feedback from you and analytics tools to see how the new systems are working for your organization. We adjust the plan given the feedback and start a new round of work.

Collect

We gather feedback for you, your team, and analytics and report back to you.

Recommendations

Based on the information we collect we collaborate with you and recommend adjustments to our plan.

Plan

We plan the next round of work and get the project tracking board ready to rip.