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A common complaint we hear from our business clients is that IT is a black box within their organization. They send requirements in, have very little communication for long periods of time, and eventually are delivered an application with approximately half of the requested functionality or enhancements. Whether a VP of Operations allotting $75 of a $600 million dollar budget to IT or the CEO of a start up ISV whose livelihood is dependant on successful product development, the frustration and uncertainly is equally painful and unnerving. Our clients wonder: Am I getting good value from my investment? Are there standards in place to ensure application quality and synergies within the development team? Does the IT team understand the business requirements? The answer may be yes to these questions, but how does a business owner know? The genesis of Three Pillar’s 3D Visible Approach was in large part to provide transparency and insight into the software lifecycle. Three Pillar’s focus on Collaborative Development and Tangible Results helps remove the void of communication that often exists between IT and Business. Working as a collective unit, our approach establishes frequent check points for project teams comprised of both IT and business personnel.

• Daily stand up meetings: 10-15 minute check point and opportunity to raise known issues and address outstanding questions.
• Kick off meeting: Opportunity for business owners to present requirements to the technical team and allow development team members to collaborate on implementation strategy and present business with time saving tradeoffs when appropriate.
• User Acceptance Tests: A business owner will not go more than 2-3 weeks without viewing and using the application being developed.
• Retrospectives: Dedicated time to step back and understand what is working well, what isn’t, and address areas of improvements.

Along with facilitating communication, our 3D Visible Approach also provides progress and quality metrics for our clients. These metrics are presented during a monthly executive retrospective, but available at any time. Examples include:

• Unit test coverage
• Number of bugs
• Burn down chart
• Team velocity graph
• Test script pass/fail rate
• Performance metrics
• Functionality scheduled for next release

Each of our projects presents unique challenges and opportunities. We adapt to our clients internal skill sets, technology platforms, and requirements for each opportunity. What is consistent in each engagement, however, is providing a few key metrics that business owners can review and absorb in a dashboard view to gain a pulse on a project’s success. 3D Visible Approach encapsulates the tools and practices that offer transparency into all our engagements, from maintenance to optimization.