The Evolution of Ideas to Implementation

As a Product Solutions Architect at Zuercher Technologies, I am involved in the complete lifecycle of developing new product functionality.  This includes discovery with the customer, software specification drafting and review, engineering and development, quality assurance testing, and lastly implementation.  To do so, I am tasked with having an in depth understanding of customer needs and existing product functionality.
 

The desire during the discovery phase with a customer is to satisfy all of their needs with existing functionality, but our consultative approach naturally yields opportunities for new and exciting enhancements for ledsSuite.  After thoroughly understanding a potential enhancement, we work with the specific customer along with our entire customer base to understand how vital and urgent the need is.  This allows us to determine a prioritization of the enhancement either as part of an implementation or as a future enhancement.
 

We then move into drafting the software specifications for the enhancement.  During this phase we work closely with customers and the Zuercher Technologies engineering and product team.  Specifications seek to answer everything from the labels for fields and columns for listviews to global settings, permissions, and in-depth operational functionality of ledsSuite.  Often times, the specifications will include a thorough narrative and detailed mock-ups of screen design.
 

The specifications then get passed over to the engineering team using our internal ticketing system for estimating levels of effort and development.  During the estimating process engineers identify any issues that may be better resolved by tweaking the specifications slightly and assign the level of effort in hours for the enhancement.  The ticket is then assigned a release date that ties to a future update for ledsSuite.
 

Upon completion of development, the engineering team will do some basic testing and later assign the ticket back to the product and support team for complete quality assurance testing.  This is the first time product folks get to see and interact with the new enhancement.  It’s during this phase that any minor updates or bugs are identified related to the new functionality.  The product and support team then works closely with engineering to communicate final changes before final acceptance.
 

After the final touches are made to the enhancement, it is finally ready for production.  At this time, the new functionality is pushed to a staging area to be queued up for the next ledsSuite update.   After receiving the software update, customers ultimately get to see their ideas become reality!
 

It’s a fast paced, high energy environment around Zuercher Technologies and it’s been a pleasure being a part of the process.  There is a lot going on and the future looks bright for both the company and the public safety agencies we are fortunate enough to work with.  I look forward to future projects and exciting new challenges as we forge ahead into new endeavors.