Medullus’s software development services team utilizes a tailored version of the Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) Agile methodology to manage and deliver projects. The Agile process enables Medullus to focus on delivering working software that always provides the highest business value . Customer engagement and collaboration is key and, employing Agile allows our Clients to see and touch the software at the end of each iteration, typically 2-3 weeks long, which allows us to be highly responsive to our client’s changing needs. 

To ensure the solution delivered meets our high standards, all solutions are delivered with our quality testing services. 

The Team 

We have team members solely focused on the following areas to delivery better software for our customers: 

• Project Governance- mainly involved with management of resources, quality, and communication between the client and the team.
• Architecture and Design – responsible for the design of the overall solution and ensuring that design optimally satisfies all requirements at scale.
• Development- develops the line of business solution based on the design and Entrance software development best practices.
• Quality Assurance in Software testing- performs independent testing, ensures quality and smooth deployment.
• User Experience/User Interface- focused on user interface and usability. 

Phases 

This model defines five distinct phases for a project. These phases overlap, define what needs to be accomplished and define a goal for quality. When used in combination with Medullus’ Agile methodology, these stages are small in scope and performed quickly. 

Envision  >  Plan  >  Build  >  Stabilize  >  Deploy 

Agile Software Development Methodology 

The Agile process works well when not all requirements are known at the onset of the project, and there is a need to be flexible to accommodate changes in requirements as the Client learns more about what they need or want in a technology solution. This process allows for changes to requirements to be made throughout the lifecycle of development. Changes are then incorporated at the beginning of each sprint where there is a deliberate and purposeful discussion about the relevant and most current requirements; as long as the Client is willing to make trade-offs regarding priority and scope of requirements, this change process will easily accommodate a need to iteratively develop a working technology solution in a phased approach, continually focusing on the highest priority features. 

PRODUCT PLANNING 

The Product Planning process is a pre-cursor to any development activity. Depending on the scope of the problem and solution this process can take from one to five days of effort. This typically involves all members of the team, but can be limited to the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Team Members who specialize in Business Analysis and Architecture. 

The Product Planning process is a pre-cursor to any development and produces the following outcomes and artifacts: 

• Understanding and documenting the business problem and processes 

• Problems/limitations of the current solution or process 
• A vision for the end state 

• Developing an initial Product Backlog consisting of User Stories that detail the functionality required by each type of user based on role 

• If possible, each User Story should be assigned a Business Value to help determine the priority for the follow-on Sprint Planning 
• Each user story should have clear acceptance criteria that will drive both developer testing and our software testing service 

SPRINT PLANNING 

The Sprint Planning process allows Medullus and our Client to work together to prioritize and schedule User Stories in the Product Backlog for development.  This is accomplished at the beginning of each Sprint by pulling items from the Product Backlog into the Sprint Backlog.  As the User Stories are placed into the Sprint Backlog, Acceptance Criteria are written against the User Story to ensure that developers, testers, and users have a shared understanding of the definition of “Done” for a given User Story. The end result of Sprint Planning is a Sprint Backlog that contains User Stories and Bugs the team will work on until the end of the Sprint. 

SPRINT 

Throughout the Sprint the Team is continuously updating the User Stories in the Sprint Backlog with effort expended and remaining effort.  This provides the information needed for reporting on Sprint progress and the metrics Medullus uses to manage its projects. 

At the end of the Sprint, a Demo is conducted to show the Client the capability that was built and to get feedback on the implementation. 

This provides the Client the opportunity to see and touch the solution. 

SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE 

The team will continuously be looking for improvement opportunities and will set aside a period at the end of each sprint to reflect on lessons learned. This period is called the Sprint Retrospective. 

Medullus approaches this meeting after the demo as a start-stop-continue meeting. Each team member is asked to identify specific things that the team should start doing, stop doing, continue doing with specific items identified the team will decide which items to focus on during the next sprint. 

DEVELOPING SOLUTION 

This process involves using tools and Agile development practices to turn the User Stories into functional software. This is driven by the order and priority of the User Stories contained in the Sprint Backlog.  Throughout the Sprint, as the User Stories are turned into functional software, the software is tested and evaluated by our developers, Quality Assurance (QA) team, and the Client against the Acceptance Criteria in the User Stories to ensure we are building the right solution.  The Team will meet at the Daily Stand-up to discuss yesterday’s accomplishments, today’s planned work and any impediments to getting the work done. 

To increase quality and productivity, the Medullus team leverages market-leading tools and Agile practices: 

Static code analysis tools 

• Unit testing 
• Automated UI Testing 
• Deployment packages 
• Continuous Integration
• Pair-programming
• Kanban boards for Work Item Management
• Source Code Management via TFS
• Database Source Code Management via Redgate 

Quality Assurance 

Medullus incorporates quality into all aspects of project delivery tailored to the type of software product development we are engaged in delivering. Document-based deliverables go through internal review for content accuracy, style, and voice. Additionally, Medullus incorporates input from Client via draft reviews throughout the delivery cycle. 

Software based deliverables are put through a rigorous independent software testing and quality assurance testing process that involves the following steps when appropriate: 

• Definition of Acceptance Criteria for software-based functionality 
• Unit testing done at the developer level 
• Functional testing done by Quality Assurance resources 
• Automated regression testing intended to streamline the development and deployment process as software-based solutions evolve 
• Software Code Reviews when appropriate 

User Acceptance Testing Eliminating all defects from non-trivial software can be cost prohibitive, therefore, Medullus monitors the costs and effort associated with resolving defects to keep those costs within acceptable tolerances and Medullus’ company standards.