We conduct our projects with intense focus on one overriding concern – how can we ensure that each customer will bring us their next project.  We strive to so completely satisfy our clients that they will be delighted with the results we deliver and with the quality of the experience of working with us.  To that end, we believe the following principles are of serious importance.

• We operate with complete integrity at all times.
• We hire the best people we can find, and treat them well.
• We stick to what we're good at, and partner with the best organizations and people we can find when the scope of work requires expertise we do not possess. We will not "fake it."
• We work as a high-performance team, and we strive to include the customer as part of the team.
• We strive to be responsive to the needs of the customer, and try to anticipate these needs whenever we can.
• We want our customers to know they can depend on us, and so we do what we say we will.
• We work to deliver excellent results, on time and on budget.

Project Planning

MicroAssist uses Microsoft Project as the environment for planning project activities and tracking and reporting status and results. Our project managers are thoroughly familiar with project planning and assessment techniques in general and with MS Project specifically.

A preliminary project plan is generally developed as part of a project bid. This plan is fleshed out and put in final form at the beginning of the project, and will be subject to approval by the customer prior to commencement of the project.  Resource assignments will be made and approved to ensure that the project can be completed within the stated timeframe.  During the first month or so of the project, project reports are defined and created based on customer input, and the reporting schedule is finalized.

Project Monitoring

Once the project plan has been finalized, it will provide the baseline against which actual project performance will be measured.  Actual time and progress data will be entered into MS Project on a regular schedule, and impacts on the projected schedule, especially the critical path, will be assessed and responded to in timely fashion.  The customer receives regular status reports that will show how MS Project is forecasting the remainder of the project, and will be party to the decisions about how to respond to changes and problems.

Project Document Management

MicroAssist uses the iManage document management system for document security and version control.  For major projects, we set up an extranet for the project team, allowing the team to securely share important project documents with full version control, without regard for team member location.  This greatly facilitates the accurate sharing of key information and also enables the maintenance of document version histories.  This system also allows the creation of a project website, through which the team can share calendars, task lists and other important information and handle project communications.  For instance, a meeting can be scheduled with automatic notification of all participants.  If a new version of a key document is saved, the system can be configured to automatically notify others on the team.  There are many such conveniences, and an appropriate arrangement is created early in the project term.

Project Transition and Acceptance

This is a key phase of any application development project.  We pay particular attention to this from the beginning of the project by developing and maintaining some important plans of action.  We have found that the transition of an application to the customer goes much more smoothly if these plans are carefully laid out early on.  Often, simple steps can be taken during development that will save considerable effort and anguish later.  These important areas include:

Testing and Acceptance Plan
It is important to establish early in the project what criteria the customer will use to decide that the application can be accepted as complete.  Then test plans need to be laid out to demonstrate these criteria.  This has implications on many aspects of the development and implementation tasks and schedules.  The customer is a critical part of this planning process.

System and User Documentation
Proper documentation is highly important to the successful implementation of an application, especially when maintenance of the code will be taken over by the customer’s staff, as in this case.  User documentation to allow the customer’s user community to become familiar with the system in general and to understand the details of the system components they use is critical to successful implementation and ongoing customer satisfaction.  These days, most such documentation will be provided in on-line form, making it maximally easy to access and maintain.

Training Plan
Implementation always goes more smoothly if the people who will be using and maintaining the new system are well prepared for their responsibilities ahead of time.  This can only be accomplished through careful planning.

Implementation Plan
Over all, the implementation of the system needs to be planned.  This incorporates the activities listed above and also other procedural or logistical concerns, such that a comprehensive plan can be put together.