Translating Your Ideas Into Accountable Plans for Action

 

Up-front analysis of client ideas and plans enable us to deliver a detailed and accountable work-plan to implement client ideas with controlled costs, while retaining flexibility and responsiveness.

Are You Asking The Right Question?

In-depth analysis yields practical results, like information about project scope and size that is useful for client budgeting. It yields documentation of requirements and preliminary features lists, and minimum viable product (MVP) definition. But it also provides a very important answer. It's the answer to whether you are asking the right question.

 

Our Methods Reduce Risk

 

Surfaceable project management combines rigorous analysis at the start of a project with Agile methods and tools applied to project tracking to enable flexibility and accountability as a project progresses.

Starting with establishing functional requirements, enumerating features, and determining an initial minimum viable product (MVP), Surfaceable project managers help you contain project cost and drastically cut schedule risk.

Analysis Results

The output of a project analysis provides clients with tools for measuring resources and time:

  • A function specification document that enumerates the functions the product is required to perform
  • A features specification that enumerates the features the product should embody
  • A minimum viable product (MVP) definition that puts a stake in the ground for completing a product with the minimum required features/functions.
  • A preliminary task list, with task descriptions, sufficient to perform schedule analysis
  • A critical path methods (CPM) analysis that uncovers dependencies in the task list
  • A resource-loaded schedule that ensures resources are not over-committed in the project plan

What if project analysis reveals that a client's desired results are not in line with available resources? We don't lead our clients into situations that won't succeed. Instead we go back to a critical question for every project: Are you asking the right question?
 

 

Agile Methods and Tools

 

While we put a lot of analysis into starting a project, we manage projects with agile methods and tools. We adapt methods to our clients' preferred tools, but quite often this means organizing tasks into scrum boards using JIRA. We use JIRA to provide clients with task-by-task estimates. As tasks are completed, clients see fine-grained work logs. Changes to tasks and estimates are tracked and the client is always in control of costs and effort.

 

 

Not a Minute to Spare

 

A key attractive element of Agile methodology is that projects get started quickly. That's important, because the sooner you start, the sooner you can finish.

 
 

We won't slow you down. While we're analyzing and planning a project, we work with our clients' designers to translate concepts and prototypes into productizable implementations as early in a project as possible. We also create tools and project infrastructure.