Development Process Guidelines

Colorado Digital Labs has been involved with many projects and no two have followed the same development path. Each came with a different set of requirements, specifications, customer expectations and culture. Our goal is to deliver a development plan that is tuned to their resources and schedules. Each development effort was accomplished under a project management plan either in place or created specifically for the job. Please refer to the Project Management page for more about this topic.

Every product development effort needs a structured process to get a cost effective result. We use Concurrent Engineering (CE) and Integrated Product Development (IPD) practices to maximize available resources and keep development times as short as possible. In every case, we always use Design For Manufacturing (DFM) best practices to minimize production costs.

The two essential issues required when beginning a new development effort are defining the requirements of the end product and firmly committing to a budget adequate enough to get the resources needed for the job. Others include the schedule and specific, realistic deliverables based on that schedule. The type of product and the target customer will determine any additional information needed to create initial product specifications. These specifications should allow for changes as requirements get refined. If some requirements remain undetermined, evaluation prototypes can be created to try different versions of the product concept.

Depending on the type of product being developed and the market in which it will be sold, it is critical to identify all applicable regulatory standards the product must comply with. Regulatory compliance ensures that the product conforms to all the required standards that apply. Evidence of this compliance is provided by marks or labels on the products which identify the standard(s) and the agency (UL, CE, FCC, TUV, ETL etc..) involved in issuing the certification marks, listing number or badges.