Purpose
The purpose of the Elaboration Phase is to develop a complete user experience based on the needs of the business and the end users. From that, we create the most compelling brand experience possible without compromising the functional integrity of the initiative.

Elaboration overview
The Inception Phase provided 80% clarity, the Elaboration Phase defines the project futher for 95% clarity. If the application being developed is a website, the creative and technical groups create the site's design and architecture, define application integration details. Often prototype applications and processes are developed for testing and evaluation. The business analysts refine requirements and desired state processes to clarify and improve the end result.

Elaboration deliverables:

• Functional Requirements
  Identification of consumer insights, business modeling and return on investment. Strategic performance metrics defined. Audience and business agendas a thoroughly discussed.
  
  
• Project Plans
  Each phase of the project is mapped to a milestone

• Project Infrastructure
  Test, staging and servers as well as issue escalation strategies are established. Bug tracking is agreed upon. Project documentation strategies are outlined.

• Information Architecture or GUI Design
  Audience analysis, Sitemaps, Workflows, Content Analysis, functional workflows

• Creative Concepting
  Developing digital assets to build the brand experience.

• Technology Architecture
  Final technical architecture documents are conceived and approved.