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Our Methodology

Antares Software Development Methodology

Our highest priority is customer satisfaction through frequent and continuous delivery of valuable software.

At Antares, we use a customized Agile Methodology and work in short “iterative” development cycles that typically last two to four weeks. As each iteration begins, we work with you and decide together the features and requirements that have the highest value to your business, and which of those will be delivered at the end of the iteration.

At the end of each iteration, we will demonstrate the product and get your feedback. Our goal is to deliver a system of increasing functionality every few weeks. You may choose to put these systems into production, or just review the functionality and report any changes. This short development and feedback cycle empowers you to be in charge of the functionality and direction of your project.

  • Development will be done in “sprints”, each of which lasts for two to four weeks, to be determined at the start of the project.
  • Prior to the first sprint, a product backlog will be created which lists all functionality to be completed during the project.
  • At the start of each sprint, the development team and product owner meet for a Sprint Planning Meeting, divided into two segments. During the first segment items are selected from the product backlog to be completed during the sprint. The product owner must be available to the development team for the second segment to plan out the sprint and create the sprint backlog.

The business experts and the development team work together throughout the project.

During each sprint…

  • The development team meets daily for a quick status review.
  • The product owner and other stakeholders are kept abreast of status by daily updates to the
    sprint backlog. There will also be a weekly status report available for interested parties.

After each sprint…

  • All stakeholders attend a Sprint Review meeting, where the team presents completed
    functionality, answers stakeholder questions, and seeks other feedback such as desired changes.
  • The development team (and optionally the product owner) will meet for a Sprint Retrospective
    meeting where two primary topics are discussed: What went well during the sprint and what
    could be improved in the next sprint.
  • All completed functionality from the sprint is made available to stakeholders for quality
    assurance testing while the next sprint proceeds. Bugs/issues are logged to be addressed during
    the following sprint.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances our agility.

 

Project Controls

Antares uses Project Controls to Identify areas of project risk and include procedures to mitigate these risks.

To effectively manage this project, the following steps will be applied:

  • Manage Deliverables – track deliverables, team efforts, costs and expenses; track the execution of the project’s activities, subcontracted deliverables, and their impact on the project plan and the project budget
  • Manage Risks – track and mitigate project risks
  • Control Assignments – control the assignment of tasks to the project team members
  • Process Project Change Requests – evaluate the impacts of project change requests to
    determine if the request is outside of the scope of the current project plan. If not, process their approvals and integrate them into the overall project plan
  • Resolve Outstanding Issues – identify, track, and resolve outstanding issues
  • Deliverable Compliance – validate and verify project deliverables against established criteria and requirements and obtain their approvals
  • Reporting – provide information on the project’s status, as part of communication management processes
  • Perform Milestone Review Sessions – conduct the reviews according to the project plan or as needed
  • Manage Human Resources – integrate and support project team members

Applying these processes will provide for proper control over the project’s execution, particularly in the
area of scope management, as ineffective scope management isrecognized as one of the major causes
for project failure.

Documents produced and forms completed and signed during the application of the project delivery
management processes will be retained in a Project File. This Project File is the repository of project
management information that will be reviewed at the end of the project.

Testing and Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance testing is the process of seeking out and identifying defects in software applications. Software defects can be introduced into the application at any stage of development. Defects can be the result of oversights, misinterpretation, mistakes, etc. on the part of the development team.

Quality Assurance testing is crucial in the software development process. By ensuring a software application is meeting specified requirements we provide customer confidence, confirm our company's reliability as a vendor, reduces warranty support time and costs, and the end result is a quality application for our clients.

Structured and systematic testing is essential to the development of quality software products. Antares utilizes a full-time quality assurance manager and analysts to oversee the testing process. Defect tracking software will be used to safeguard against reported defects not being addressed.

We Know Software!