---
title: IDEAS methodology
slug: '2752'
canonical_url: https://docs.coveo.com/en/2752/
collection: coveo-services
source_format: adoc
---
# IDEAS methodology
Coveo™ Professional Services (PS) teams employ a project management methodology called IDEAS when carrying out the implementation of a solution based on the [Coveo Platform](https://docs.coveo.com/en/186/).
The IDEAS methodology covers the key activities to complete for each project and can be easily integrated with any development framework or methodology.


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<table>
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            <tr>
                <th><a href="#initiate-the-project"><strong>INITIATE</strong></a><br><em>the project</em></th>
                <th><a href="#define-the-solution"><strong>DEFINE</strong></a><br><em>the solution</em></th>
                <th><a href="#execute-the-configuration"><strong>EXECUTE</strong></a><br><em>the configuration</em></th>
                <th><a href="#appraise-the-results"><strong>APPRAISE</strong></a><br><em>the results</em></th>
                <th><a href="#success"><strong>SUCCESS</strong></a><br><em>with the solution</em></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>
                    <p><strong>Hold kickoff</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Introduce team members</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review business objectives</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review project scope</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Determine success criteria</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Start communication cadence</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Start project</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Share technical prerequisites</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Draft detailed project plan</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <p><strong>Hold workshops to review requirements and design solution</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review source systems</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Define security and permissions</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Design user interface inputs and outputs</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Define data and metadata normalization requirements</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Select AI models and strategies to implement</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Select data to ground generative models</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Set up non-production environment</strong></p>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <p><strong>Index data</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Configure connectors</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Configure indexing pipeline extensions</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Implement security and permissions</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Configure and integrate user interface components</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Search and recommendations</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Relevance generative answering</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Usage analytics and data tracking</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Tune relevancy and configure AI models</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Query pipelines</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Query suggestions</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Automatic Relevance Tuning</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Recommendations</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Dynamic navigation experience</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Relevance generative answering</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Usage analytics and data tracking</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Commerce or Service specific models</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <p><strong>Test and tune solution</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Test solution end-to-end</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Support User Acceptance Testing</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Resolve issues</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Tune results, recommendations, and generative relevancy</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Prepare go-live</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Prepare deployment to production</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <p><strong>Support Go-live</strong></p>
                    <p><strong>Provide hypercare support</strong></p>
                    <p><strong>Close project</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Document solution implementation</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Transfer knowledge with customer</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Handover solution to Coveo Success and Support</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

The following tables provide a typical breakdown of responsibilities between the client and the PS project team.
For each phase, an estimated percentage of efforts and typical duration are indicated.
This information is meant to help plan the collaboration between PS and clients, but can also be useful to anyone looking to implement a Coveo-powered solution, such as system integration partners or clients own development teams.

## Initiate the project


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                <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><strong>PS activities</strong></th>
                <th style="text-align: center;"><strong>Expected from client</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="2">
                    <p><strong>Hold project kickoff</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Introduce team members</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review business objectives</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review scope</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Determine success criteria</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Start communication cadence</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Start project</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Share technical pre-requisites</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Draft detailed project plan</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Participate in kick-off meeting</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Facilitate required collaboration with other teams (Business, IT, other projects)</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide information and coordinate with other projects that may impact</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide business objectives and success factors</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide schedule and timeline constraints</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="3" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Deliverables</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Kick-off presentation</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Project initiation requirements</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

**Estimated effort: 2% of total hours**

**Typical duration: 1 week**

## Define the solution


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            <tr>
                <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><strong>PS activities</strong></th>
                <th style="text-align: center;"><strong>Expected from client</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="2">
                    <p><strong>Hold workshops to review requirements and design solution</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review source systems and data</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Define security and permissions</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Design user interface inputs and outputs</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Define data and metadata normalization requirements</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Select AI models and strategies to implement</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Select data to ground Generative models</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Set up non-production environment</strong></p>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review and approve Project plan</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide accounts, accesses, and other technical requirements outlined in Project initiation requirements</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Coordinate required participation in requirements and design workshops</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide user interface standards and requirements</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide source system data understanding</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Make decisions on design options and choices</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Review and approve Solution design</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="3" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Deliverables</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Project plan</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Solution design</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

**Estimated effort: 15% of total hours**

**Typical duration: 2-4 weeks**

## Execute the configuration


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                <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><strong>PS activities</strong></th>
                <th style="text-align: center;"><strong>Expected from client</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="2">
                    <p><strong>Index data</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Configure connectors</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Configure indexing pipeline extensions</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Implement security and permissions</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Configure and integrate user interface components</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Search and recommendations</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Relevance Generative Answering</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Usage analytics and data tracking</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Tune relevancy and configure AI models</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Query pipelines</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Query suggestions</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Automatic Relevance Tuning</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Recommendations</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Smart Snippets</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Relevance Generative Answering</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Commerce or Service specific models</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Participate in project status meetings</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Iteratively review results following data source configuration and indexing</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Iteratively review results following user interface configuration and integration</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Plan user acceptance testing and document test cases</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide access to required technical resources to assist Coveo as required</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="3" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Deliverables</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Solution ready for Acceptance Testing</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

**Estimated effort: 50% of total hours**

**Typical duration: 3-7 weeks**

## Appraise the results


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        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><strong>PS activities</strong></th>
                <th style="text-align: center;"><strong>Expected from client</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="2">
                    <p><strong>Test and tune solution</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Test solution end-to-end</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Support User Acceptance Testing</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Resolve issues</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Tune results, recommendations, and generative relevancy</li>
                    </ul>
                    <p><strong>Prepare go-live</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Prepare deployment to production</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Lead and execute user acceptance testing</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Report issues, assist troubleshooting, and retest</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Report on relevancy and generative testing results</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Provide solution acceptance</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="3" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Deliverables</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Deployment plan</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

**Estimated effort: 25% of total hours**

**Typical duration: 3-5 weeks**

## Success


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        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><strong>PS</strong></th>
                <th style="text-align: center;"><strong>Expected from client</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="2">
                    <p><strong>Support go-live</strong></p>
                    <p><strong>Provide hypercare support</strong></p>
                    <p><strong>Close project</strong></p>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Document solution implementation</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Transfer knowledge with customer</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Handover to Coveo Success and Support</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
                <td>
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Lead and execute production go-live</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Participate in knowledge transfer</li>
                        <li class="no-margin">Measure results against success criteria</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="3" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Deliverables</strong></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">
                    <ul>
                        <li class="no-margin">Solution blueprint</li>
                    </ul>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

**Estimated effort: 8% of total hours**

**Typical duration: 2 weeks**