What to Expect When Starting a Custom Project
- The team will ask for your business case to better understand your needs and identify the best way to move forward. Be prepared.
- Your credit union will be heavily involved with the project. This is a hands-on team effort from all parties involved.
- Custom projects can be expensive, from both the vendor and CU*Answers.
- Custom projects can be lengthy and time-consuming. Timelines vary due to project complexity and the availability of teams involved. These projects will take at least a few months to complete.
- Projects will be assigned after the custom project bid is signed. Be careful not to commit to a timeline or implementation target with your vendor, marketing team, or members.
- Options to escalate your project ahead of others in the queue may be available for a fee, but the timeline is still subject to the availability of programming and testing resources.
- Development environments to test these projects are not permanent. No “sandboxes” will be created.
- On occasion, we may decide to work on a project “for the good of the network”. We will cover the cost, and the project timeline will be at our discretion. Although there will be no custom bid, we will still need a CU to champion the project.
What’s an Overview of the Process?
- Define Business Case: Identify the opportunity or problem to be solved.
- Research Solutions: Check existing solutions (integrations/APIs) before exploring new ones. We want to help you avoid paying for a custom project when applicable solutions already exist.
- Vendor Involvement? Do your due diligence, but don’t sign anything. Discuss with CU*Answers before vendor agreement.
- Request Project: Request via the Store.
- Collaborate & Plan: Meet with the Custom Services team for a discovery meeting to discuss your goal and possible solutions. Present your business case.
- Vendor Involvement? Engage vendors for group discussion.
- Authorize R&D Bid: Sign a Research & Design bid and Special Request/Authorization form. We’ll research the technical aspects further and create a project bid.
- Review Project Bid: Determine if you’ll move forward with the project.
- Kick-off Project: Sign the project bid to add the project to the queue. Your involvement is still required! (Note: Projects usually take around 90-120 days to be assigned a programmer.)
