ProjectVertex: MEI's Proprietary Project Management Methodology

To promote this transparency, ProjectVertex adopts an iterative lifecycle that employs mini-milestones.  Although projects typically define a series of functional milestones, ProjectVertex also places a reporting threshold that is driven by mini-milestones.  These mini-milestones are arbitrary and not intended to define functional synchronization points. Each mini-milestone is constrained to two calendar weeks or less. In a project with multiple resources, this results in code releases and attendant reporting on a weekly basis. The purpose of these frequent code releases are to promote visibility and to encourage end-user testing even on incomplete items to discover architectural or implementation errors as early as possible as a way to mitigate risk. The intended audience of these releases are the technical personnel that will maintain the completed system and the reporting generally revolves around issue reports and status.

To control the project timeline and budget, ProjectVertex also prescribes the formation of a steering committee made up of key project stakeholders. The steering committee meets bi-weekly and is provided a series of reports by the project manager including an executive summary of progress, and other useful reports allowing the steering committee to make timely and informed decisions.

ProjectVertex controls quality by utilizing the tools provided by the mini-milestones and steering committee to continually test the system. Bench testing is handled by the weekly builds forcing integration testing. No module may be released for testing unless it has passed round-robin test cycles. The round-robin test cycle effectively ensures that no programmer signs off on their own code, so at least one other person has tested the code. In addition, each project manager must review code at least once a week for each programmer to ensure adherence to standards and specifications. A protocol is then defined for reporting issues back to the development team to address all issues in a timely and robust manner.

MEI’s approach to your projects will be to complete the specifications by eliminating as many assumptions as possible by interviewing key stakeholders. The next step will be to produce a project plan that clearly manages risks and adheres to the timeline set forth in the requirements. The milestones for the project will derive directly from the project plan. The primary purpose of this phase is to eliminate assumptions and mitigate risks.