Catapult Project Methodology
These models represent the application of the MSF foundational principles to the “people and process” aspects of technology projects—those areas that have the greatest impact on project success.
The MSF Team Model and the MSF Process Model are schematic descriptions that visually show the logical organization of project teams around role clusters and project activities throughout the project life cycle.
These models embody the foundational principles and incorporate the core disciplines; their details are refined by key concepts and their processes are applied through proven practices and recommendations.
The MSF Team Model defines the roles and responsibilities of a team of peers working on information technology projects in interdependent multidisciplinary roles.
The MSF Team Model is based on the premise that any technology project must achieve certain key quality goals in order to be considered successful. Reaching each goal requires the application of a different set of related skills and knowledge areas, each of which is embodied by team role.
Collectively, these roles have the breadth to meet all of the success criteria of the project. Therefore, each role is considered equally important in this team of peers and major decisions are made jointly, with each role contributing the unique perspective of its representative constituency.
Key Quality Goals:
Delivery within project constraintsDelivery to product specificationsRelease after addressing all issuesSmooth deployment and ongoing managementEnhanced user performanceSatisfied customers
Every project goes through a life cycle, a process that includes all of the activities in the project that take place up to completion and transition to an operational status. The main function of a life cycle model is to establish the order in which project activities are performed. The appropriate life cycle model can streamline a project and help ensure that each step moves the project closer to successful completion.
The MSF Process Model is based on phases and milestones. The phases can be viewed successively as exploratory, investigatory, creative, single-minded and disciplined. Milestones are review and synchronization points for determining whether the objectives of the phase have been met.
The MSF Process Model flexibly allows a Catapult project team to respond to your requests and to address changes in a solution midcourse, when necessary. It can also allow us to deliver key portions of the solution faster than would otherwise be possible by focusing on the highest priority features first and moving less critical ones to subsequent releases.
The Process Model is a flexible component of MSF that we use to improve project control, minimize risk, improve product quality and increase development speed. Its five phases make it adaptable enough to be used for any technology project, whether application development, infrastructure deployment, or a combination of the two.
The integration of the MSF Process Model with the MSF Team Model makes a formidable combination for project success. Collectively, they provide roadmaps for successful project delivery that take into account the uniqueness of your organization’s culture, project types and personnel strengths.