Processes for recruitment, employee development and allocation assure the quality of the people we recruit, the training we impart, and the availability of people with the right skills. In addition to an induction-training programme, every consultant at Ontrack must undergo a mandatory six days of development training every year. Besides covering technology skills, development training also covers inculcating management skills and building a perspective on quality.

The Processes are methodologies which form a matrix, where the methodology defines the stages of a project and the processes define the tasks performed at each of these stages.

During development we follow ISO 9001 procedures, which require projects to ensure backup, recovery and risk mitigation strategies as part of the project plan. The plans are subject to client approval and periodic audits. As part of our company wide disaster recovery strategy, we store periodic backups outside the development center.

In keeping with the above philosophy, the effectiveness of an Offshore Development Centre and its ability to meet the success criteria would depend on well-defined and well-managed processes:

The processes in place at Ontrack cover the following activities:

	Requirement Analysis
	Project Management
	Risk Management
	Client Relationship Management
	Quality Assurance
	Configuration Management

Each of the processes have a set of activities as per the following:

Project Management:

	Planning and Estimation
	Planning and Monitoring of Work in terms of Deliverables and Work Products
	Resources in terms of Individual and Group Roles
	Schedule in terms of milestones
	Quality in terms of predefined standards
	Configuration in terms of Tools and Techniques
	Risk in terms of Correctness, Reliability, Maintainability, Reusability and Schedule
	Completion

Risk Management:

	Identify Risks at the start of the project
	Assess Risks
	Review and Update Risk Inventory
	Manage Risks

Client Relationship Management:

	Expectation Management
	Project Progress Reporting
	Regular written and oral communication

Quality Assurance:

	Define QA Plan and Review Process
	Define and Measure Quality Metrics
	Conduct Reviews based on pre defined Checklists and Review Forms
	Testing Correctness, Completeness and Traceability

Configuration Management:

	Build Current and Previous Configurations
	Change Control

Methodology:
The methodology used consists of stages, which broadly are the following:

	Systems Study
	Planning and Estimation - Project Plan, Test Plan, Configuration Management Plan, Risk Management Plan and Training Plans
	Project Kick Off and Start Audit
	Requirements Analysis
	High Level Design - DFDs, ERDs, Use Cases, Site Map, Screen Shots
	Prototype
	Low Level Design - Technical Specifications including Class Design, GUI Design and Database Design, Use Case Diagrams
	Periodic Reviews for Compliance and Process Improvement
	Construction (includes Unit Testing)
	Integration and System Testing
	Preliminary Acceptance Testing
	Final Client Acceptance and Support
	Project Completion Audit

Project Reviews:
When planning for projects a set of milestones are defined and at the end of each milestone a formal review is conducted by both the development team internally as well as the external QA team. The milestones vary from project to project and are defined on the basis of the client expectations.

During the lifecycle of the project we have a number of formal and informal reviews. As a general rule the formal reviews are conducted at the end of client Deliverables or critical Tasks. Informal Reviews are conducted at the end of each and every task during the Life Cycle.

	External QA reviews
	Peer to Peer Reviews
	Internal Reviews by the Project Manager / Project Leader / Team Leaders
	Code Inspections and Walkthroughs

Testing:
The systems developed are subjected to exhaustive tests. These take the form of unit tests, integration tests, system tests and acceptance tests. The Testing Process followed at Ontrack, for each of the testing phases, is as follows:

	Testing resource identification and allocation
	Test Planning and Review - Effectiveness and Efficiency
	Testing and Results documentation
	Bug Fixing Work Allocation

Metrics:
During the lifecycle of a project a number of metrics are extracted to enable improvement in the following:

	Estimation Accuracy
	Employee Productivity
	Requirements Quality - Ambiguity, Completeness, Understandability, Volatility and Traceability
	Product Quality - Structure, Maintainability and Reusability
	Implementation Effectivity - Resource Usage and Completion Rates
	Testing Effectivity - Correctness, Completeness and Traceability

Overview Methodology Benefits