The 360 Blueprint

Sometimes you have an idea for a web project, but you're not exactly sure how you can do it. 360 PSG can help you solve that problem through a complete blueprinting process, helping you build your business on the web. 

Whether you're starting with a website, need a custom web application to accomplish a task or are starting from scratch, 360 PSG can help get your ideas off the ground.

So what does a blueprint do for you? 

You have a great web idea. It might be a product to sell, a service to offer or information to share.

Now what? How do you make that idea happen?

At 360 PSG, we can help you come up with your plan, put it in motion and deliver your result.

The 360 PSG Blueprint lays out our guidelines for choosing, creating and implementing a web project, from something as basic as a web membership system or a complex custom web application.

The 360 Blueprint aligns the entire team with the same goals and objectives to build your project from idea to reality.

Stage 1 - Setting Expectations (Define the Blueprint)

  The initial consultation with an experienced web application architect comes at no charge (and no commitments). This meeting/conference call will make sure the goals and objectives of the collective group are in sync. An initial cost expectation can be assumed based on budgets and scope of requirements (these numbers will vary greatly at the first stage).

The goal of this consultation is to determine if there is a real need, a real budget, and real targeted objectives for getting it done. Sometimes canceling a project before it starts is the most cost effective decision that can be made (based on risk assessments, resources, and more). The 360 architect will setup a blueprint price and provide the team with everything they need to move on to stage 2 (if desired).

Consultation Complete, Project is Feasible?

So, the 360 Architect stepped in and helped focus objectives. General budgets are outlined, timelines for needs have been laid out, and some pretty open ended wants and needs have been defined. Moving into the blueprint stage 2 comes next. Each client defines their blueprint very specifically... is custom development an option (build it one way), does the product have to come from a fortune 500 software mega-company (blueprint is much different)? Could it be either or possibly even a hybrid? That was determined in Stage 1, the official engagement begins now.

Stage 2 - What's in a Detail?

  You may find it surprising that every person in management does not think alike. Would you believe that the human resource department considers its needs more important than those in marketing, or vice-versa?

It happens and when it comes to multi-staff, multi-departmental software needs, it can come out in full force. The 360 architect organizes key personnel and establishes a multi-tier set of focus group meetings with the most affected staffers. Sometimes the focus group is a single person or two and some blueprints have required 360 to schedule dozens of individual departmental groups of 12 or more at a time. So, now onto the details of everything that goes on in these meetings (talking, writing, questioning, focusing, etc) and that's the focus group stage. Out of it the 360 architect walks away with intimate details of everything needed to reach stage 3.

Stage 3 - The Decision Makers

Upon successful completion of the focus groups and ideal system collections, a draft document is put together outlining all things discussed. This is organized and structured by experienced architects and usually will contain the input from several 360 team members, including the design group, database architects, and application developers. The final outline notes all features and works as a guide for management to decide what to pursue. After laying out all the possibilities, the decision makers decide what their priorities, needs, wants, and save-for-laters are. Once the final list of requirements and components has been limited to the 'phase 1' product, then the final stage of blueprinting will occur.

Stage 4 - Delivering the Blueprint

  This final stage has little interaction with the client. Most information should have been gathered and discussed in the previous two stages. The architecture team goes to work crunching all of the scattered information and compiling it into a structured and detailed document. Many blueprints will include visual diagrams, business objectives, application structural callouts, database flows (or sometimes design), third-party software integration requirements, and possible phase add-ons. This document usually ranges in size based on the product need. Several 360 blueprints are dozens of pages, some are hundreds. The document is built on quality of information, not quantity.

Completing the Deliverable

After the completed blueprint is delivered, the client usually sends the document out with their standard RFP documents attached as the 'Scope of Work' portion in their request. Vendors usually have a predetermined window for proposal submission. Once all responses have been collected, the client can invite the closest matches to their budget, features, and timelines in for more detailed presentations. The blueprint gives them an even playing field for asking the right questions, scoring the proposals with the same set of criteria and eliminating the 'fluff' that some vendors pass off in trade for what the client actually needs/wants.

The final vendor chosen for the project will have the 'scope' blueprint as a model required for successful delivery, and the client will know what they should be getting, and not just a vendor's possibly misinterpreted understanding of a few bullet points.

Blueprinting can be done for total project budgets of a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more. Please ask for references from past 360 blueprint clients of various sizes. If 360 PSG is invited to bid their own custom development team on the project, any monies spent on the blueprinting product are discounted against the final proposal price.

Contact a 360 PSG rep to start building your web blueprint.