At Luminous Solutions LLC we follow a structured, Industry Standard development process that begins with a consultation. The initial meeting gives us an opportunity to meet each other and usually lasts one hour.

We will take this opportunity to explain the development process that we follow. Since we are explaining the process and not hashing out project requirements, there is no charge for the initial meeting.

During the Initial Meeting we will discuss things like the Designated Decision Maker. This "point person" is assigned by the client and has the responsibility to make final decisions about the project. We would like to know if you have calculated the Return on Investment (ROI) that a new database will provide. Also, we would like to know your primary reasons for hiring a consultant to design and develop custom software.

At the end of the Initial Meeting the client will receive a copy of our Standard Terms and Conditions. The Standard Terms and Conditions document will answer questions about rates and general business policies.

The database development process begins with Needs Gathering. During this phase we will meet and analyze your database and business needs. This part of the Discovery Phase is when we collect and compile your database needs and start collecting information needed to write a specification.

The collection of needs is done on site with the designated decision maker. The goal of Needs Gathering is to collect all of the information necessary to write a specification that addresses your requirements. This will likely involve one or more of the following; meetings, interviews, brainstorming sessions, watching people work, analyzing workflow, inspecting current forms, etc.

The final part of the Discovery Phase is the Specification. During this phase we will be writing a specification and creating an Entity Relationship (ER) diagram (click on the "Sample ERD" Icon below). The specification is a written explanation of your technical needs. The ER Diagram establishes how different groups of data relate to each other. The Specification outlines all of the technical requirements for the project that were collected during Needs Gathering.

The specification is the deliverable for the Discovery phase and will be used to establish a price for the Development phase.

(Sample ERD )

Similar to constructing a building, the Development phase is when we begin "building" the database. At Luminous Solutions LLC we follow industry "Best Practices" when developing our solutions. In addition, we are constantly working to address the "Human" element with regard to designing interactive systems.

When the development is completed, the database must be installed. Installation is generally a simple process and takes a relatively short amount of time. Once the database is installed, the warranty period begins. The warranty period lasts 30 days or until a written acceptance of the database is received.

The Support Phase begins with user training. User training will very often eliminate many hours of wasted support time. Please contact to find out more about our training services.

The support period is the final part of the Support phase and is an ongoing process. It covers database modifications, added functionality such as additional reports and any other features that are requested.