An effective software development environment and methodology can offer significant advantages for any project - but like any tool they only work well in the right hands. We are not evangelists - our approach is to work with our customer and choose the most appropriate approach for project success.

Selecting the most appropriate methodology for success

A business critical decision before a software development project even begins is selecting the most appropriate methodology for success. It is essential that the business sponsors and project manager be clear in their own mind about how they want to run the project. The development approach must factor in the real world constraints and success factors from the start. Our focus has always been on providing the maximum value to our customers, which is why we have adopted two software development methodologies:

• The Waterfall Model
• Agile Software Development

Selecting the most appropriate methodology

Some customers may require a working prototype to bring to life the business requirement, or to raise funding/sponsorship. These types of projects require agility. We have delivered a number of systems where a business user has worked directly with a team of experienced PeopleWare developers, iterating through several designs and releases to get the desired system. Based on this experience we know that early releases will need to meet the dual goals of flexibility and ability to change, whilst being designed for longer-term scalability and extensibility.

On the other hand, some of our customers prefer to follow the traditional waterfall process. This approach requires a clear definition of the scope, boundaries and interfaces of a system. The project phasing and critical path must be clear to ensure that all of the project partners are in step. The successful completion of formal tollgate reviews and multiple levels of sign-off strictly control progress from one phase to the next.

Either approach has its advantages and risks. During the preparation of our initial proposal our team will work with the customer to determine the best methodology for meeting the project goal and business requirements.

Each development approach delivers the maximum benefit to our client at the earliest opportunity. This strategy gives the client the option to take a working sub-set of functionality to the market for early feedback.

We consider effective project management to be a crucial factor in the success of any project. We expect our project managers to engage directly with both our client's business and the software development team - it's not just an administrative process.