The following Best Practices reinforce each other: The result is that the solution is:

On-time
On Budget
In Compliance!

Best Practice Principles:

1. There is no such thing as over design
2. Develop every project Interactively to Reduce design flaws
3. Manage Requirements every day to catch errors
4. Use Component Architecture, (reuse of components) and incremental evolution of software rather then starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel
5. Visually model software to improve the ability to manage complexity
6. Verify software quality by running tests interactively and automate test scripts (reduces testing time and effort)

Control changes to software by decomposing the architecture into subsystems and establishing an enforceable change control.

Best Practices Needed And Implemented For Successful Projects:

1. Workshop method
2. Project Blueprint/Design and Architecture
3. Testing methodology
4. Test Specification document
5. Communication with teams
6. Training manuals and documentation
7. Standardization's applied to projects
8. Design Patterns
9. Development standards
10. Graphic standards
11. Documentation standards
12. Automation for testing (Introducing audits within each process)
    - Adherence to standards
    - Code reviews
    - Design verification
    - Metrics on Quality
    - Project reviews
    - Client involvement

Project Management

Depending on the type of project, in order to optimize on the development cost of the project, some development work would be undertaken at Xelleration’s offshore development facilities in the Indian Sub-continent while the Scope, Design, Testing, Documentation and Deployment aspects of the project are handled by our Onshore and Onsite resources. The project planning, resource allocation, progress tracking, management and change control would be based on our web-based time management system.

XELLERATION PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND TRACKING System.

This web-based application creates a workflow environment in which the Xelleration Team based in our offshore facility integrates itself seamlessly with our onshore team and client. All activities of the project and the extent of its progress is maintained and managed on a secure web site or project space. Each project has its own web site or project space which connects all the categories of resources working on that project namely the Customer Representative (CR), Project Coordinator (PC), System Analyst (SA) or Team Lead (TL), Developer (DV), Graphic Designer (GD), QA Engineer (QA) and the Technical Writer (TW). Every category of the resource has a web interface and has a dedicated area where the tasks are divided into a develop list, a test list, an evaluate list, a fix list and an approve list. The tasks, when completed, moves across each of these lists and finally gets approved in the approve list. A customizable web tool for administration defines the permissions for each of the resource categories and restricts the views and control on the tasks. Critical information of each task is captured and the status and time taken for each task is evaluated. This gives the project complete transparency and control on a real-time basis. Complementing this seamless and mature processes paradigm is an effective real-time communication model consisting of a right combination of emails, chats and teleconferences along with change management and source delivery mechanisms.

Xelleration Client / Project tracking and management system works in conjunction with the following tools:
• Project Change Management Scheduler
• Resource Manager
• Time Management System

Project Change Management Scheduler

The Project Change Management Scheduler is a Change Management tool that helps to build a log of all the Change Orders and Requests associated with a project and keeps track of all the tasks and activities attached to a project. This also helps in allocating resources to the tasks that have been identified. The Scheduler has the ability to Prioritize, reassign, escalate and Categorize tasks by projects, resources and time lines. Xelleration clients can have access to post tasks directly into the system and assign them to Project Managers or directly to Project resources. The Scheduler has built in business rules that notify, escalate or reassign tasks based on severity and schedule.

Resource Manager

The Resource Manager is a tool for managing resources, which span multiple platforms and departments. This tool has a specific purpose that it helps to assemble a most optimized team for a project by matching the skill sets, extent of experience, efficiency, availability etc. of potential team members with the specific requirements of the project. For projects, which involve multiple teams reporting to different managers, the Resource Manager provides the necessary support to make things work smoothly.
The most important task of Resource Manager is to allocate resources from the resource pool most optimally. It matches and identifies the best available candidates from the pool to work in a project keeping in view the different constraints applicable to the project. The selection of team members is based on the constraints specified in the Resource Manager. The constraints would include the skills required, the efficiency of the resources and the time duration in which a particular resource is free. Once the resources are selected, the project manager can accept the selection or reject the resource and could ask for a new allocation. If the resource is accepted then this resource is assigned to a particular project for a specific time period.

Time Management System

Xelleration uses a proprietary Time Management System that allows all resources to track their tasks and time for all work electronically online on a weekly basis. This tool is not only a very good way to allow time sheet input and tracking but also has an integrated project status and billing system that allows Xelleration Management up to date information on project status and accounting against all project baselines.