Needs Assessment

Meeting Current and Future Performance Objectives

The Needs Assessment component of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is an extremely critical activity to ensure that all requirements for a solution will be satisfied. In cooperation with the Client, requirements are discussed and documented, and a ‘Gap Analysis’ is performed comparing the requirements to the ‘out of the box’ solution. At that time a decision is made for each ‘Gap’ identified as to whether the solution needs to be modified or if the Client’s business process (in that particular requirement area) will be changed to conform to the functionality being offered by the un-modified solution. It is during this activity that interface requirements are also considered (i.e.; what other systems need to transfer data to/from the ISS Group solution).

The deliverable from this activity is a Statement of Work (SOW) which outlines what ‘base software’ will be required to satisfy the documented requirements (i.e.; which ISS Group solution, what other 3rd party solutions may be required), as well as what modifications and interfaces will need to be developed. The SOW will provide a detailed budget for the project, including license, maintenance, and service fees, a projected timeline for the project, and the assumptions which were made to determine the budget and timeline.