The PassionITe Development Process

When you contact us, via web, phone or email, we usually during the initial conversation cover general information and for instance, coordinate the signing of an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). After this phase, we will work closely with you to acquire a deep understanding of your project.

Evaluating a project

To estimate project durations we are working very close to the “PERT" method (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). The project manager and the pilot team review project requirements and break the work down into tasks and sub-tasks. An estimate of Best Case, Worst Case, and Most Likely Case for each task is produced. The PERT formula computes an Expected Case value that is weighted more toward the worst case than the best case. Most programmers have a tendency to be overly optimistic in their estimates, and this is why we use this methodology. We sum the expected cases of all tasks to calculate an Implementation Sub-total.

We then burden that value with 3 adjustable factors:

• Project Management.
• Testing.
• Bug fixing.

We then turn the estimate into a range by adding a "Safety Margin" to account for project risk factors that may not be reflected in the value calculated by the PERT formula.

How we do the work

We do not have a one-method-fits-everything type of development methodology we follow. The heteroclite nature of the customers and industries we serve, but also the ways we integrate with our clients' organizations prevents us from dictating exactly how the development of every project should be executed.

Rather, we adapt the broad principles of agile software development and apply them in a flexible, practical manner. This means using as lightweight design and management procedures as possible, emphasizing short, frequent release cycles, and remaining responsive to changing requirements.

We believe that frequent and high-quality communication is crucial for the success of your project. As a result, project status is not merely "reported" to you. You will be an integral part of the project team, constantly aware of what's going on. Here's how we do this:

• We try to make regular releases, in order to reduce the likeness of a project going in a wrong direction. It is accompanied by release notes explaining what has been added since the previous release.
• We use a web-based defect and change tracking system. Each project has its own secure area.
• We provide you with weekly status reports. This would be a summary report in addition, not instead of, all the other kinds of communication. It may be useful for reflecting project status up to higher levels of your organization.
• The project's project manager is available during all normal work hours by phone. Feel free to call him or her. Likewise, the project manager will not hesitate to call you if they need immediate clarification of any issues.

Paying for the work

We charge hourly or daily for our services. The source code and the all the rights to modify and distribute, with no strings attached, are transferred to the client once all invoices have been paid in full*. This includes source code, graphics, documentation, and any other project-specific files created during the course of the project. Clients and their attorneys often request specific changes which we are usually able to accommodate.

Of course this does not include reusable libraries, or any third-party software introduced in the system. Compliance to the copyrights and licensing of those components is required.

Warranty period

The delivery date marks the first day of the warranty period. Although conditions may differ from project to project, as a global rule we apply a warranty period of 60 days starting from the day we deliver the solution to you. Our warranty period is not tied to the acceptance of the work, since some customers have a tendency to linger on performing a thorough review of their solution.

During the warranty period we will fix any bugs or problems discovered – where the behavior is different from the accepted specification, at no additional charge.

Past the warranty period we will still prioritize fixing newly discovered bugs, the cost of the work for these fixes will be billed to the customer at the normal hourly rate that applies.

If changes are made to the system the warranty ceases immediately.

The liaison officer

The project manager is the main technical contact during the life-cycle of the project. It is considered essential that the customer also dedicates a responsible contact person of his organization to co-assist in managing the project successfully.