This approach identifies and manages risk more effectively than the traditional waterfall approach , which is based on the erroneous belief that requirements will remain frozen during a software development project. The weakness of the waterfall approach is that it addresses risk late in the project making it costly to undo mistakes from earlier phases. Digital Blueprinting identifies risks to a project early in the lifecycle, when it s possible to react in a more efficient and cost effective manner. It yields results that are more predictable by surfacing problems early, revealing the real requirements, focusing on the most important issues, and enabling an objective assessment of a project s status. Project Phases Digital Blueprinting has four distinct phases, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Iteration also provides continuous discovery, invention, and improvements in implementation.
There are nine core workflows in the Digital Blueprinting process. The core process workflows are divided into six core engineering workflows and three supporting workflows. Although the names of these workflows may bring to mind the sequential phases of a traditional waterfall approach to development, they are actually quite different because of the nature of the iterative process and the fact that these workflows are revisited again and again through the lifecycle of a project. For instance, notice in Figure 1 that the Elaboration, Construction, and Transition phases all show the ebb and flow of two or more iterations. Each iteration involves a pass of the standard waterfall method with the goal of completing an artifact, a needed document or target software release.