Typical Project Lifecycle

At a high level, a typical project lifecycle consists of discovery and solution design, implementation, testing and launch.  An example project timeline showing the different phases is shown below.

• Discovery is the initial phase of the project.  This phase involves gathering business requirements, generating the backlog, and updating project estimates and schedules.
• Implementation covers configuration, development and testing phases.
• System Integration Testing (SIT) is used to test individual integrations between systems (i.e. end-to-end).  Performance Testing is used to confirm the peak volumes for orders and inventory loads. 
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is where the business signs off on the end-to-end business scenarios and reporting. Typically, the client is onboarded just before UAT, so they can effectively use the web apps (Fluent OMS and Fluent Store) user interfaces during testing.
• Launch and 'go live' carry out the production deployment, data staging and validation testing phases of the project lifecycle

Discover topics are grouped into three parts in the diagram below.  When structuring the workshop, the recommended approach is selecting the topics relevant to the client's requirements.  

Ecosystem & Integrations

The discovery topics here help to determine information relevant to the current ecosystem and technical integrations.  This includes integrations such as:

• What systems will be integrated (e.g. Salesforce, Adobe, SAP)
• How many brands the client owns and in what regions do they operate (e.g. Asia-pacific, Europe, Australia only)
• How many order channels are going to be integrated with the Fluent platform (e.g. Amazon, eBay, e-commerce website, point-of-sales system)
• What systems are going to provide product, inventory and location information to the Fluent platform (e.g. A client may have 20 locations: 15 stores, 2 warehouses, and 3 suppliers).
• Expected volume and frequency of information updates (e.g. 1000 inventory positions per minute)
• Other system integrations needed to communicate with the Fluent platform:
  • Customer service systems
  • Logistics/carriers systems for orders that require delivery (e.g. Australia Post, Ship It)
  • Payment integrations (e.g., Afterpay, Paypal)
  • ERP/WMS
  • Systems required for reporting

Having a good background understanding of Product, Location and Inventory information determined in Part 1 makes the next part (Omnichannel Experiences) much easier to complete.

Omnichannel Experiences

Omnichannel Experiences help to determine how the Fluent platform can help to achieve client-specific objectives and requirements in the domains of Order orchestration, Inventory management, Product availability, and Store fulfillment. 

Business Operations, Project and Change Management

Topics covered in this part help determine who the internal and external stakeholders are (e.g., suppliers) impacted by the change in processes and systems.  A change in systems and processes will require staff training to become familiar with the process and system changes.  

Includes topics such as:

• Planning for system testing after development and a plan for how this will be rolled out.
• Non-functional issues, such as:
  • How many inventory positions are expected to change every day and how frequently;
  • How many orders does the client expect on a regular day vs. Black Friday sale.
• Operational support after rollout:
  • Monitoring systems, systems to alert or escalate issues when they arise after rollout / SLAs for support.

Discovery and Solution Design

This package is designed to assist with discovery and ensure successful implementation of Fluent Order Management.  It's popular with partners and clients who are still learning the ropes and would benefit from having support from an Expert Service Consultant to help guide the process and ensure that implementation commences in the right direction.  It includes the provision of technical and functional guidance throughout project delivery according to Fluent Order Management best practices.  The team is also there to help conduct detailed technical and functional checks and reviews, and also assist with:

• Integration mapping support and design
• Domain-specific workflow design (Order, Inventory, etc.) such as rulesets, rules, states, and user actions
• Best practices, both technical and functional
• Help with designing rules
• Help with user experience design

Order Management Experience

Designed to assist with:

• Analysis of existing Admin Console and Service Point web app configurations (if still being used), and adoption of the Fluent OMS and Fluent Store web applications
• Best practice guidance in developing on the Fluent UX Framework
• Guidance around customising Fluent Commerce web applications to a client’s business requirements
• Report with findings and actionable recommendations
• Analysis walk-through with Client and/or Partner

Go-Live Readiness

Designed to support the successful go-live of Fluent Order Management.  It includes a review covering multiple checkpoints to ensure the solution is certified to launch. This process is intended to be run 2-3 times to ensure the implementation is in a 'fit-for-production' state, and includes a Ready For Launch report (RFL) for partner and client records.

Engagement of Expert Services

When the engagement of Fluent's Expert Services team begins and ends is shown in the project timeline below:

Configuration Analysis

Analysis of the general account setup, such as settings and users. It also includes the verification of key platform feature toggles which are required for any new Fluent account.

Inventory Management Analysis

Involves the analysis of inventory management, such as the nature and frequency of inventory batches. Inventory processing in large volumes can result in computer-intensive operations within the Fluent platform, resulting in a potential impact on the overall execution of business logic. Because of this risk another focus area is on the analysis of inventory volumes, which can lead to required optimisations and changes in the way inventory is handled.

Workflow Analysis

Includes analysis of workflows in the account with a focus on the structure, readability, consistency, and maintainability of the workflows.

Custom Plugin Analysis

Includes analysis of the custom plugin and a review of the corresponding code. Similar to the workflow analysis, the focus is on the structure, readability, consistency and maintainability of the plugin.

Integration Analysis

Integration analysis focuses on the integration of the Fluent platform with other systems. It covers the most important aspects when integrating with the platform.

Partner vs. Expert Services Deliverables During Ready for Launch

Ready for Launch occurs 2-3 times throughout the implementation depending on the project complexity.  At a minimum, it is done:

• At least once as a mid-point project review. 
• At the conclusion of the implementation phase.

By doing this, it gives both partner and client the opportunity for early feedback and the ability to take any remedial action not to delay the project timeline. It further provides the confidence that the solution will be fit-for-purpose.

Partner-led and Fluent Expert Services-led activities:

Projects are led by either the Implementation Partner or the Client directly involved in implementation.

Sponsors and Governance

A Project Sponsor (or Project Manager) on the client side is matched with an Expert Services Senior Manager or with a member of the Client Success team from Fluent Commerce.  They will also be matched with the Account Lead and/or the Project Manager on the Implementation Partner's side.

Steering and Design

The Solution Architect, Business Analyst, and Tech Lead on the Partner's side are matched with the Product Owner, Enterprise Architect, and Expert Services Consultant on the client side.

Implementation

During the implementation process, the client's IT team, Fluent Commerce's Expert Services Consultants, and the partner's QA Tester/Engineer and team of Java + React Developers work together.

Workshops and Testing 

During Workshops and Testing, Business and IT Stakeholders, Key Users from the client side, Expert Service Consultants from Fluent Commerce, and a Business Analyst from the Partner's end come together.

Typical Project Roles & Responsibilities

The following generic RACI chart forms the basis of the overall responsibilities between the client, partner and Fluent during the project implementation phase.

Responsible - owner of the task

Accountable - must sign off/approve the task

Consulted - has necessary information or capability

Informed - should be informed

Discovery Phase

Implementation Phase

Fluent account types

A typical setup of a Fluent ecosystem for a project will include production and non-production (or sandbox) accounts, although this can vary based on a client's individual software license.

Clients and Partners are provisioned with the following standard Fluent accounts:

• 2 x Sandbox for Dev, SIT, UAT
• 1 x Production

Provisioning of Fluent Accounts

Fluent accounts will be provisioned upon request at the relevant project milestones described below.  The process to request an account is through your assigned Expert Services consultant.  Any accounts issued to clients or partners can only be used for specific project-related phases/activities.

Development & SIT/UAT Sandbox Accounts

Development & SIT/UAT Sandbox accounts are provisioned during the Discovery phase, typically towards the end so it's available for the start of dev work (Sprint 0).

Production Account

Production accounts are typically provisioned within about 6 weeks of Go-Live so that production set-up can commence, once everyone is relatively confident with the implementation on the UAT account, and the Ready For Launch (RFL) report has no blocker issues open. 

Projects are led by either the Implementation Partner or the Client, directly involved in implementation.

Sponsors and Governance

A Project Sponsor (or Project Manager) on the client side is matched with an Expert Services Senior Manager or with a member of the Client Success team from Fluent Commerce.  They will also be matched with the Account Lead and/or the Project Manager on the Implementation Partner's side.

Steering and Design

The Solution Architect, Business Analyst, and Tech Lead on the Partner's side are matched with the Product Owner, Enterprise Architect, and Expert Services Consultant on the client side.

Implementation

During the implementation process, the client's IT team, Fluent Commerce's Expert Services Consultants, and the partner's QA Tester/Engineer and team of Java + React Developers work together.

Workshops and Testing 

During Workshops and Testing, Business and IT Stakeholders, Key Users from the client side, Expert Service Consultants from Fluent Commerce, and a Business Analyst from the Partner's end come together.

Approaching Project Estimation

A typical approach to post-discovery project estimation is shown in the example provided below.  This approach can be taken as a good jumping-off point in estimating task sizes and prioritising sprints as the project progresses to development.

Estimation

The first task is to define the effort brackets (also known as t-shirt sizes) to be used for project effort estimation.   At an early stage of the project it's useful to use effort ranges in order to convey a level of uncertainty, and depict the expected lowest, average and highest effort scenarios.  An example is provided below, however this can be adjusted so it makes sense for your specific project:

• Base = minimal effort (0 to 1 days)
• Small = simple configuration (1 to 2 days)
• Medium = average configuration or simple custom solution (3 - 7 days)
• Large = complex configuration or average custom solution (10 - 20 days)
• X-Large = complex custom solution (20 to 40 days) 

Once the estimation brackets are defined, each story or requirement in the backlog can be estimated.  The total effort can then be used to identify the project team resource requirements.

Prioritisation

In addition to identifying the T-shirt size effort estimates against each requirement, it is also important to run through requirement prioritisation.

The MOSCOW framework (MUST, SHOULD, COULD and WON'T) is a good way to prioritise requirements as the project moves into development.

Estimation By Priority

Once estimation and prioritisation is complete the overall project estimate can be broken down by requirement priority levels.  This can be really useful for defining the project scope vs. budget, and having a conversation with the client around potentially re-categorising the priority or certain requirements if the budget or timeline needs to be optimised.

This can also be translated into Statement of Work (SOW) options as shown in the example below.

Fluent Commerce Points Of Contact

The first point of contact for a partner during implementation should always be with their assigned Expert Services consultant. This is for advice, troubleshooting and support during development and testing.  There will also be an assigned Fluent Commerce Client Success Manager that will be a point of contact for any commercial discussions or project delivery escalations.

Platform Support

As a SaaS platform, Fluent maintains the availability of the infrastructure the platform is hosted on.  The support and availability of the platform (both Sandbox and Production) is maintained by Fluent’s Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team.  As the implementation gets close to launch, apart from the provision of the Production account, there will also be a JIRA Service Desk profile created for the client and partner organisations.

Production Service Level Agreements and the steps to create a Service Desk ticket are documented here: https://docs.fluentcommerce.com/essential-knowledge/platform-support-process

Application Support

The implementing partner is typically responsible for providing application support from project go live, for support of any workflows and associated customisations that have been implemented on the Fluent Commerce platform.  It is mandatory for the client and partner to have in place an Application Support Agreement prior to project launch.