Project Planning

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Working with us means you will become involved with the MindCrafted way of creating software. We have established a systems development methodology that maximizes quality while minimizing cost.

Our methodology emphasizes careful planning.  It eliminates confusion about what to do next and what to produce. Our methodology results in proven successes. It provides a road map for project participants and guides us in developing systems in a systematic way, not by accident or momentum.

Numerous studies have shown that the cost of changing a specification in a software development project increases at least tenfold with each step in a project. There is never any cheaper time to make a change than right now. Projects that use careful planning from the very beginning minimize later changes, thus holding down costs and reducing the time to complete a project.

In Conducting and Managing Projects, MindCrafted Uses...

	Project Management

A Detailed Bottom-Up Estimating Technique	We estimate project costs starting at the most detailed task level. Our tasks used in estimating rarely exceed three days of work. If we think a task is larger than three days, we break it down further. By basing estimates on the total of many detailed tasks, estimating errors tend to be small and to cancel one another out. Our estimates are not "educated guesses," they are based on real deliverables and realistic judgments made from years of experience.
Project Plans Based On Tasks Outlined In The Estimate	The original estimate becomes the basis for a project plan. Each task is assigned an estimated duration and a person to accomplish that task. When completed, actual numbers are tracked against the estimate to both manage costs and to refine future estimates. We also use this project plan to manage scope. We do not add a task to a project without the approval of a your project manager. This allows you to control scope and to track it back to your budget.
Our Project Change Request System Included In Each System We Write	Our Program Change Request (PCR) database system tracks and reports pending changes to your system. This gives you the means to see and report all pending changes to a system and to better control the project by ensuring the most important changes are done first. We manage the problems, you manage the priorities.