Our Approach
Catapult uses a proven methodology that ensures success by providing tools and processes that enable project teams to exceed expectations for quality, delivery time and cost.
We employ the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) to provide an adaptable framework for successfully delivering information technology solutions faster, requiring fewer people and involving less risk, while enabling higher quality results.
MSF helps teams directly address the most common problems of technology projects in order to improve success rates, solution quality and business impact. Created to deal with the dynamic nature of technology projects and environments, MSF fosters the ability to adapt to continual change within the course of a project.
We operate within this flexible and scalable framework, which can be adapted to meet the needs of any project (regardless of size or complexity) to plan, build and deploy business-driven technology solutions. The MSF philosophy holds that there is no single structure or process that optimally applies to the requirements and environments for all projects. It recognizes that, nonetheless, the need for guidance exists.
As a framework, MSF provides this guidance without imposing so much prescriptive detail that its use is limited to a narrow range of project scenarios. MSF components can be applied individually or collectively to improve success rates for the following types of projects, at which Catapult has deep and broad expertise:
Software development projects
Infrastructure deployment projects
Packaged application integration projects
Any complex combination of the above
MSF guidance for these different project types focuses on managing the “people and process” as well as the technology elements that most projects encounter. Because the needs and practices of technology teams are constantly evolving, the materials gathered into MSF are continually changing and expanding to keep pace. Critically, one key function of the MSF is to help forge strong links between IT and business – links of understanding, accountability, collaboration and communications.
The MSF enables us to deliver better results for your business through higher product and service quality, improved customer satisfaction and working environments. These factors translate into a positive impact on your bottom line and improvements in your organization’s strategic effectiveness.
MSF was first introduced in 1994 as a loose collection of best practices from Microsoft’s product development efforts and Microsoft Consulting Services engagements. MSF has been evolving since then based on deliberate learning from the successful, real-world best practices of various Microsoft groups as well as its partners, like Catapult. Now a robust and mature framework, MSF is managed and developed by a dedicated product team within Microsoft, with guidance and review from an international advisory council of subject matter experts. Our consultants rely on this pool of real-world best practices in addition to our own experiences, proved both internally and externally to ensure that you get the best quality and highest value result from your Catapult engagements.
At the core of MSF are eight foundational principles:
Foster open communications
Work toward a shared vision
Empower team members
Establish clear accountability and shared responsibility
Focus on delivering business value
Stay agile, expect change
Invest in quality
Learn from all experiences
Together, these principles express the MSF philosophy, and that of Catapult Systems' methodology, forming the basis of a coherent approach to organizing people and processes for projects undertaken to deliver technology solutions.