Throughout the lifecycle of a project, Plasma Computing Group's team of highly skilled talent adheres to the following proven process to ensure successful solution creation and deployment and -- most importantly -- customer satisfaction and swift return on investment:

 

• Business and Requirement Analysis

 

• Risk and Security Management

 

• Project Planning

 

• Project Communications and Reporting

 

• Rapid Prototyping

 

• Architecture and Implementation

 

• Quality Assurance and Deployment

 

Business and Requirement Analysis 

Business and requirements analysis is about asking the right questions at the right time. Done correctly, business and requirements analysis leads to a solid design foundation and, therefore, successful product development. Weak analysis only creates future problems by having poorly defined system boundaries and an unstructured product implementation.

Plasma Computing Group's expertise in business and requirements analysis establishes a valued partnership in the following ways:

• Business analysts work closely with customers -- either on-site or off-shore - to thoroughly evaluate processes
• Resources with domain expertise are made available on demand
• Both, a knowledge base for rapid development and a knowledge retention program are fully supported
  A model-based approach for functional analysis is our "norm"

Process
Plasma's business process management and software analysts utilize a structured approach for successful analysis. The recommended process for each analysis includes:

• Modeling the existing system and processes, which might be a legacy system or actual business processes
• Identifying the possible objects, when appropriate
• Developing use cases for specific systems identified during the analysis phase
• Refining use cases in further detail as the study proceeds
• Conducting a risk management and mitigation process to evaluate the impact of the new system and the risk associated with replacing a legacy system with a new system

Resources
Plasma uses certified business analysts and a team of experts, including:

• Certified Project Management staff
• Local market project managers with specialized capabilities
• Professionals with vertical industry expertise
• Resources available on demand and as needed

 

Risk Management

The difference between a successful project initiative and a failed one can be depend on how well the company plans for and manages related risk and security issues. And, actions have got to be proactive, not reactive.Plasma Computing Group provides clients with comprehensive project risk and security analysis that includes specific recommendations designed to reduce the chance of unexpected roadblocks. Assessments are performed by experts with extensive training and consulting experience specific to the vertical industry and software engineering process.

Every risk management study performed by Plasma culminates with the delivery of written reports that serve as planning documents to be used during project implementation.

Plasma offers the following services to help clients plan for and manage risk:

• Independent risk and security analysis for project and business processes
• Risk analysis during project implementation
• Risk mitigation and planning in close collaboration with the customers project planning team
• Security assessment and planning for project execution and deployment.
• Evaluation reports, including suggestions on how to minimize risk related to planning, implementation and deployment

Process
During the risk management phase of development, Plasma:

• Defines the goal of the project, its beginning and end
• Defines the project timeline, milestones and deliverables
• Defines processes to identify the risk owner and the hierarchy for reporting and implementing risk mitigation strategies
• Creates an interaction model to list all internal and external influences on the project plan, milestones and deliverables
• Standardizes process for evaluation of risk and techniques for mitigating effects on the project
• Defines potential problems and their scenarios
• Defines actions which need to be taken to minimize or eliminate the effect of the problem on the project (risk mitigating strategies)
• Evaluates the effect of mitigating strategies on how well the company plans for and manages related risk and security issues. And, actions have got to be proactive, not reactive.

Resources
Plasma uses a team of experts, including:

• Consultants with vertical industry experience
• Experts with a structured analytic approach

 

Project Planning

Project planning is an integral part of successful project implementation. It's viewed as the foundation on which stable products are built and valued for helping companies expect the unexpected while planning for the future.

Plasma Computing Group utilizes certified project managers to coordinate and manage all project planning tasks in close association with customers and gives them the tools necessary to bring each project to successful completion.

Plasma ensures premium project planning through:

• PMI-certified project managers with domain expertise and hands-on experience
• Well defined project planning processes and templates for collecting and analyzing information
• Top level project planning tools deployed from the start
• Delivery of projects on time and within budget
• Optimal utilization of resources during project execution
• Best practices knowledge database for reference and mentoring

Process:
During the project planning phase of development, Plasma:

• Creates a detailed analysis of customer's project scope
• Reviews of all requirement analysis and risk management documents
• Conducts a strategic analysis in close consultation with the customer's project management team
• Defines boundaries for time, resources and responsibilities as a three dimensional matrix
• Submits specific milestones, deliveries and resource utilization to customer for approval

Resources:
Plasma uses a team of experts, including:

• Consultants with vertical industry experience
• Experts with a structured analytic approach
• Professionals certified and accredited by recognized industry organizations
• Industry veterans with hands on experience in strategic planning

 

Project Communication

Effective communication and reporting is key ingredient for a successful project implementation. It becomes even more important in case of interaction between multiple teams located at different geographic regions and working for different companies.

Plasma Computing Group's extensive history in successfully developing project communication and reporting strategies is used to establish the most appropriate communication protocols and reporting templates for current and futures projects.

Plasma ensures effective project communication and reporting by:

• Defining complex information exchange processes early on to provide a clear path for the flow of information between different project participants
• Deploying field tested templates for reporting and monitoring the project progress by different project units
• Effective utilization for ROI
• Tracking and reporting specific project metrics for consistency
• Monitoring the flow of information and record keeping to provide decision tracking and legacy documentation

Process
Plasma's project communication phase of development includes:

• Establishing a communication and reporting hierarchy for each project
• Defining the interaction between different project units
• Determining the process and templates for communication and reporting within each project unit to project management
• Identifying the process for monitoring and updating different project metrics
• Deploying tools for decision and communication tracking and project documents control

Resources
Plasma uses a team of experts, including:

• Project management resources with vast project implementation experience
• Professionals with experience deploying complex communication and reporting strategies for diverse projects

 

Rapid Prototyping

The world of software engineering survives and thrives on ideas and concepts; some great, others unremarkable. The greatest challenge for companies is to convert concepts into actual products or technology demonstrators.

Plasma Computing Group equips its customers with the tools necessary to rapidly convert concepts into technology demonstrators by quickly converting ideas into prototype demonstrators using an internal knowledge repository and prefabricated components.

And, it all done before a concept develops into a fully budgeted product initiative, because we understand the importance of proving the viability of the concept while providing a cost effective solution.

In the rapid prototyping phase of the development process, Plasma:

• Uses on demand resources with the right and relevant technology background
• Deploys cost effective solutions using a proprietary offshore development model
• Draws from a knowledge base repository for quick solutions
• Utilizes prefabricated components to convert specs into working prototypes

Process
Plasma's process for rapid prototyping includes:

• Reviewing customer specifications and the informal conceptual documentation
• Conducting whiteboard discussions with the customer's technical team
• Deploying a offshore project implementation team
• Submitting a technical paper on the prototype, including technologies and components to be used
• Earning customer approvals and input on the technical approach to be used
• Initiating prototype requirements and modeling using UML and management tools
• Developing the prototype using internal and external prefabricated components
• Utilizing internal mentoring on technologies and availability of knowledge repository to complete tasks effectively and efficiently
• Coordinating the deployment and management of the project by onshore local project management team

Resources
Plasma uses a team of experts, including:

• A technology-centric team working from an offshore lab
• Project management in the same time zone as the customer
• Mentors and knowledge intelligence experts for reference

 

Architecture and Implementation

A software system must be designed by defining the various software modules of the complete system, the visible interfaces of these modules and their relationship to each other and, then, implementing the established modules into a deployable system using specific technologies.

Plasma Computing Group utilizes software methodologies such as UML to develop architecture representation from the business and requirement analysis. Once the architecture modeling is completed by the software architecture team, the model is passed on to the implementation team for technological refinement and actual coding and implementation.

In the architecture and implementation phase of the development process, Plasma utilizes:

• A uniformed system development process
• A model-driven architecture approach
• UML modeling tools to architect different system modules
• Platform specific design and implementation using modeling tools
• Interactive and regressive processes for development and refinement
• Design and architecture details available for legacy maintenance and enhancement
• Effective utilization for ROI

Process
Plasma's process for architecture and implementation includes:

• Studying all requirement specifications
• Developing the platform independent model using UML modeling tools
• Designing of the system by the technical implementation team
• Converting the platform independent model to a platform specific model
• Producing the application and passing it on for quality assurance
• Refining the application based on the customer's input
• Deploying the application for general availability

Resources
Plasma uses a team of experts, including:

• An architecture team with complex design experience
• A technical implementation team with technology-centric experience
• A project management team with vertical industry experience

 

Quality Assurance and Deployment 

The quality of every IT solution created and deployed should be assured; without exception.

Plasma Computing Group's successful quality assurance initiative requires well defined metrics to independently verify the performance of the application produced by the development team and involves processes for communicating with the development and project management team for efficient software defect resolution.

Plasma offers the following quality assurance and deployment services for internal and external projects:

• Dedicated QA team specializing in software testing and quality assurance
• Experience using a number of help desk systems to support QA process
• Software testing tools and scripts utilized throughout the QA process
• Multiple time zone QA capability to make developments around the clock
• Multiple deployment models, onsite or remote offshore
• Experience configuring access infrastructure solutions, such as Citrix servers during deployment phase

Process
Plasma's QA and deployment phase of the development includes:

• Evaluating the performance of the application using the predefined project metrics
• Reporting to the development team using cases opened in the help desk system
• Mobilizing software testing tools and scripts for automation
• Declaring application general availability after earning a quality certification from the QA team
• Deploying the application on the customer's environment, either for beta testing or production
• Utilizing offshore deployment team services as needed

Resources
Plasma uses a team of experts, including:

• A dedicated and experienced QA team
• A deployment team for onsite delivery and deployment
• An offshore deployment team for remote configuration and deployment

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