BlueKatana's processes have been honed through years of experience to ensure top quality project results. BlueKatana has all the components necessary to support small, medium and large projects at the highest Professional Quality.

Project Structure
BlueKatana's standard project development process has been mostly influenced by RAD,  MSF and a countless amount of hours and experience. Our experience helps us optimize all resources used in a Project; from Human Resources to Hardware; from Programming Language to Systems Architecture. This process is heavily tailored to the requirements and limitations set forth by the customer, however in general it continues using the main points of the above-mentioned methodologies.

The Projects are executed iteratively; with most iterations consisting of the following phases:

Discovery
During the discovery phase, the team and the customer define or refine the business requirements and the overall goals of the project. Alignment of business and IT priorities in this phase is crucial, and the team will spend time understanding how the architecture will be used. During this phase, the team also begins identifying and mitigating risks. The discovery phase culminates in the vision-approved milestone, which indicates that the team and customer agree on the project direction.

Planning & Design
During the planning phase, the team schedules the development and makes requirements more specific. The end of the phase is marked by the approval of the project plan by the customer.

Development
During the development phase, the team moves from project planning into the projects themselves, creating each of the projects into working pieces of functionality. Depending on the type of Project; the Team will move to setting up hardware; program modules, creating objects, developing services, or designing websites.

Test
During the testing phase, the team collects and integrates feedback on the released version, resolves project-related issues, enhances the architecture, and prepares for the next version.

QA Process
The Project is Quality Controlled to detect any deviations from the original scope defined in the Design Phase, or redefined during the Project Life with the corresponding corrections following our QA guidelines to assure the highest quality in the market. Only when the QA Phase is completed; the project is readied for sign-off.

After the Project is signed-off; it's released for Production. What finishes the Project's Life Cycle.

If after going Live, any given errors or bugs are detected, they will be corrected free of charge to the customer.

At this point, the customer can choose to hire a certain amount of hours for System Maintenance, or choose to maintain the production environment itself.


Key Player Roles in Our Successful Teams
To accomodate our Clients and depending on the Project size, the following Roles can be covered either by one, or multiple Professionals. If multiple Professionals cover these Roles, then only the Project Manager will be in charge of the project and will be your point of contact.

Project Manager
The Project Manager is responsible for all communication and documentation of the project. He is the single point- of-contact for all client communication issues: reporting, updates to requirements, status tracking, and so on. The Project Manager acts as an advocate of the client's team to BlueKatana's team and vice-versa.
The Project Manager is also the technical leader for the project. The PM is also responsible for the technical success of the project, and therefore ensures that everything is delivered on time - and meets the highest quality standards. Communication The project process is completely transparent.
Time spent on the project is controlled through a Web-based instrument (BlueKatana Project Manager), and the customer is able to remotely monitor project progress and real-time status at any time, 24/7. BlueKatana has a very strict policy on filling timesheet records, so the customer can be absolutely certain that the system reports up-to-the-minute and accurate information.

Requirements Manager
This role is available only for remotely implemented projects or large projects; otherwise this role will also be fullfilled by the PM. It is essential that requirements are assessed, analyzed, and updated accurately and effectively. BlueKatana has an established requirements-assessment procedure in place. As part of the standard process, the Requirements Manager goes from top to bottom, from understanding the client's business processes to creating workflow models of the software to be built and down to creating technical requirements for software. Every step is documented and approved by client along the way.

Technical Architect
If the size of the project demands multiple Development Teams or Tracks, then each Team will have its own Technical Architect; who will carry on with the Technical Lead role for the Development/Admin Team. The TA participates in meetings with the Customer about the Solution's Technical Implementation. The TA is also responsible providing different technical approaches that satisfythe clients needs; and ultimately leads the team that will implement the solution.

Development Team
This group is available for projects that require Software Development. The Team will be formed by 2 to 5 developers who will program the functional modules. If required; this Team will use the services of Database Architects, Network Architects, Graphic Designers, and other Professional service providers that are available on a pro-Project basis.

Admin Team
This Team is composed of a set of Technically Skilled Professionals that will handle any type of Software/Server Administration, Software/Server Setup, Hardware Setup, LAN Wiring or Un-Wiring.

Change Management
BlueKatana recognizes the need to accommodate spontaneous requests to make functional or operational changes to the system on demand. All requests for changes will be submitted through the project supervisors on the client side. BlueKatana will estimate the costs of the given change, as well as the impact on scheduling and the overall system. This analysis is delivered to the Supervisor.

Change procedure standards
BlueKatana follows certain fundamental principles when implementing any change:
*Making any change must not affect the integrity of the system
*The system must be consistent, both in the working procedures (i.e. data entry, reporting, etc.) and in the user interface. Therefore, all changes must be made in harmony with the existing system style
*Any change must be properly documented and change development must be planned and executed
*A list of changes must be traceable
*A software code repository must permit rolling back to any previous system version
*Deploying an updated system must have minimal or no affect on the normal work cycle