Spieker Point Inc has been in the business of contract software development since 1999.
Our president, Greg Campbell, has been professionally developing software since 1990.
We find that it is in everyone's best interest to start from a great set of requirements.
Sometimes, it is difficult for a customer to come up with that set of requirements.
(This can be for several reasons - from just way too busy, to the requirements are currently vague,
to it's not completely understood what is possible with the current technologies... )
We can help you flesh out your requirements! We've had lots of success with interviewing the
customers and various stake holders - listening to and understanding their needs - and coming up with a
complete set of requirements that makes everyone happy. It is often the case that the completed
requirements set generates lots of internal (to the customer) conversation as to what is really needed.
This set is then reviewed, extended, refined and approved by the customer.
At this point, depending on the customer, a Formal Acceptance Test can be developed. Giving
everyone involved an understanding of what tests need to pass for the requirements to be met.
This is another tool that makes the requirements better understood.
There are many different development paths to travel now that the set of requirements is known. A full
waterfall method is one, an iterative development technique is another, and there are lots more. Each
has it's place, and we will work with you to figure out which is right for your project and the customer.
Testing is built into the process - right from the requirements on up. We feel so strongly about testing
that we have a tester who sits on our staff. We also encourage the customer to test early versions of the
product as we hit development milestones to make sure everyone is on the same page. Defect tracking
systems are in place to make sure that none of the testing results (formal or otherwise) are lost.
Sign off is done at the point where testing shows that the results meet with the requirements, or the
Functional Acceptance Tests passes.
At this point, a maintenance period may begin, or it may be built into a hosting contract - it varies
depending on the customer's needs.
We have created many applications from scratch for customers using the process above, and the
technologies below.
The bulk of our work (and our passion) lies in the J2EE arena. We use EJB3.0 in the JBoss AS container for our own products, and we have done lots of work for our customers in this area.
Customer work in this area often entails some sort of legacy product with a massive database back end that the customer wants to modernize and create a "web presence" for - to access data and business logic via the web. The tools and specialized knowledge base that we've developed in-house allow us to quickly map a legacy database into our modern coding environment to access the underlying data. Then, we can quickly layer in business logic to either mimic the legacy product, or more interestingly, extend the functionality where the legacy product left off.
We have staff who have current, deep knowledge of .Net and are working on customer contracts now. We are familiar with .Net from both the Web side, and from a "rich application" point of view.
We have staff who have current, deep knowledge of C and C++ and are working on customer contracts now. We are familiar with maintenance activities in this arena, as well as the extension of legacy systems by adding new functionality to it.
We would be happy to discuss any types of development work that your are thinking about. Even if you just want to "kick some ideas around" - drop us a line!
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