This phase will typically last one to two weeks. During this phase, I work with the client's users, IT professionals and executives, to identify:
- Executive requirements
- Critical success factors
- Roles and responsibilities
- High level business requirements
- Initial logical data model
- Application architecture
- Project scope and preliminary cost estimate

A preliminary design document will be developed to include scope, project plan and a preliminary cost estimate, all based on the information obtained during this phase.
Once requirements are finalized with client approval, I will begin the Design Phase and subsequently progress to the Construction Phase and on to project completion.

Design specifications are created, detailing the new system down to the level of database, network, screen and report layouts and the integration of any other software packages.
If data will be transferred from an existing system into the new system, then a data transfer plan will also be included.
After client review and acceptance of the design specifications, work will proceed to the Construction Phase.

The Construction Phase is the programming phase.
During this phase, the products specified in the design specifications are developed and tested.
The database is populated with test data, and any new hardware configurations are tested.
Finally, the system is tested as a whole, and preparations are made for client acceptance testing.