So, you’ve decided to proceed with hiring an IV&V team. You’ve got a sense of what to expect from the process and a growing understanding of how you stand to benefit…
But what do you actually do with the findings of your IV&V team?
First, you have to fully understand the goals of an IV&V team. While they will become “embedded” in your workflow and staff for the duration of the development process, they are still a third party. Their word is not law. The evaluations performed, problems found, and so on are recommendations. It’s up to company leadership and stakeholders to decide what actions to take.
Let’s take a look at some of the decisions that will need to be made.
Risk Assessment
IV&V findings generally include areas of improvement. In fact, these people are professional “problem finders” – and will provide detailed documentation about all of the things that need fixing, are being done incorrectly, or may lead to issues down the road. They will dig deep to uncover risks and potential problems you would’ve likely overlooked… But it’s ultimately the company’s choice whether or not to address each and every trouble spot.
This means that IV&V findings will lead to a risk assessment by the organization. Leaders will have to decide which issues are the most pressing, which present the largest problems, and likely, which problems they’ll be able to live with.
Examine Impact
Similar to assessing what findings present the largest risks, a company can use IV&V findings to find areas of development that stand to improve the most. By evaluating the greatest impact areas, you’ll know where you can invest time and effort for the greatest return.
These impact areas may be fixing errors, but could very well extend into UI tweaks, a marketing plan, or any other area of development and deployment. The point is to take the IV&V findings, compare with internal goals, and execute the best course of action.
Estimate Costs
All of the recommendations of an IV&V team will come with associated costs. Whether it’s investing in equipment or additional labor, redesigning or changing scope – making changes comes with a price tag. Using the information presented by the IV&V team, decision makers can estimate the costs of each recommended action, weigh against budgets, and make informed choices about how to proceed.
Along with risk and impact, costs are an important factor when choosing how closely to follow IV&V recommendations. You have to know what to expect before you can proceed!
Make A Plan
After calculating costs, evaluating risk, and searching for largest impact areas, a company stands ready to execute changes and improvements. This is the time to make a detailed plan, and the information provided by your IV&V team will be critical.
While creating evaluations and recommendations, an IV&V team will also lay out pathways for achieving the goals they recommend. Again, it’s a company’s choice whether or not to follow the guidelines, but experience and expertise generally make the IV&V team’s plan worth considering.
You will, of course, use the IV&V findings to create plans, but you can also work alongside the IV&V team for assistance and guidance in real time.
To learn more about how IV&V can greatly improve your development process and boost ROI, contact us today!
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