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Case Studies - MFI View Analysis Suite Development Project - Brightwell Technologies
» http://www.brightwelltech.com
Brightwell Technologies is a Canadian corporation headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. The company develops particle analysis instrumentation for the pharmaceutical, environmental, material science, and life science sectors. As part of their portfolio, Brightwell have a suite of applications to help assist in Liquid Particle Analysis using their flagship product Micro-Flow Imaging™ or MFI. THE CHALLENGE
Brightwell Technologies wanted to revamp their MFI Shape Analysis product to make it intuitive, user-friendly with a rich user interface, and include additional features to help in the analysis work. This required a solutions provider not only well versed with software development technologies and product delivery experience, but also someone with expertise in real-time image processing and modelling. THE SOLUTION
Avigna Systems was approached to re-design and develop a new application to meet these requirements. After the detailed requirements analysis and based on the user profile (mainly the scientists at the various pharmaceutical companies and other research establishments) and the modeling needs of the future, we proposed building the product using the next generation User Experience of Adobe Flex. The final product allows importing large particle data (up to 1M records) gathered by the custom hardware and creating analysis projects. The user could then work on analyzing and isolating particles using various tools and dedicated algorithms. The product supports several interactive graphs including the histogram, trend charts and scatter plots that allowed dynamic data selection and interactive zooming. A hierarchy of filters could be created that allowed for incremental particle filtering and focused analysis. Flexible complex reports could be produced from the project and published in pdf format. The project settings could be saved as a template for use in other projects to easily reproduce the analysis. The end result in Brightwell’s own words was a product that was light years ahead of their older traditional Windows application. THE VALUE
Apart from keeping the development costs low by applying the offshore model, we were also able to meet the customer satisfaction goals that we had outlined.
Highlights include:
- Marketing and Sales at Brightwell were pleased with the final product and conveyed to us that the new product would definitely help boost their sales
- Several existing and new customers who were impressed with the early prototypes were already lined up for the software deployment at the time of the product release
THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MODEL
Using our proven onshore-offshore development model, Avigna Systems using its ‘Partner Selection Criteria’ guidelines identified our partner Coextrix Technologies Ltd. in India to work on this project. Coextrix had the necessary expertise needed, having worked on a similar project in the past for the Oil and Gas industry using similar technologies. Using our proven onshore-offshore development model, Avigna Systems using its ‘Partner Selection Criteria’ guidelines identified our partner Coextrix Technologies Ltd. in India to work on this project. Coextrix had the necessary expertise needed, having worked on a similar project in the past for the Oil and Gas industry using similar technologies. Right from the step of identifying the technology, to gathering requirements, providing prototypes where necessary, to developing, testing and finally delivering a software product that matches the user’s needs, fits within the timelines agreed upon and within budget, Avigna Systems has exceeded the client’s expectation. Some of the key steps we took to ensure the project succeeded include:
- Clear milestones were defined for the entire duration of the project including various iterations even within the development phase. And each milestone had a concrete deliverable and the criteria to measure success against.
- Regular face-to-face meetings were set up with Brightwell to update them on the status and to ensure work was aligned well with their expectations. These meetings also included screenshots, prototypes or software demonstrations when applicable.
- Regular status meetings with the offshore team to address the status and issues the development team may have. The frequency of these meetings varied from daily (during requirements gathering and analysis) to weekly once in development and back again daily during the final testing phase and UAT.
- The practice of daily builds was employed with the offshore team that allowed for continuous and early views of the output.
- Design and code reviews were performed by the team in Canada at regular intervals and feedback was provided to the offshore team for incorporation.
- Each delivery from the offshore team was defined as fully tested code.
- Thorough testing of the code was also performed by Avigna Systems in Canada to ensure that the delivery to Brightwell would be of the highest quality.
Brightwell Technologies and Avigna Systems are working together on the next release of the software to be released in 2010. Agile Software Development Models are being considered for this next release. |
