Method
Our software projects run on the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), a development and project management framework built on Microsoft's own internal and external project experience.
MSF is a written collection of the processes, principles and proven practice of software development. It introduces the software development life cycle, and it fits many kinds of projects. Fast work, small teams, clear roles, careful risk assessment and a complete project management method raise the chance that an IT solution succeeds, and they raise its final quality too.
Eight principles
- Foster open communication
- Work toward a shared vision
- Empower team members
- Everyone is accountable, responsibility is shared
- Keep the goal in sight: deliver business value
- Stay agile, expect change
- Invest in quality
- Learn from every experience
Built to fit the project
MSF holds that no single method gives the best result on every project regardless of its setting. So it supports several approaches, and it works for projects of any size or complexity while its core principles stay the same.
The MSF process model is iterative. Work runs in several short cycles, with steady learning and steady improvement of the product. It starts from the underlying business problem and represents the people who fund the solution. Finding the needs, building the software and testing it happen in overlapping, repeated cycles, so the people involved get the product they actually need. Each cycle focuses on a different area, and the result is that every part of the system ends up stable and usable.
MSF has two models: the team model, which describes the roles in a software project, and the process model, which describes the stages of the project.