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Practical Strategies Inc. | |
Practical Strategies provides significant value to clients by combining technical expertise and best-practice software design and development approaches.
| Technical Expertise |
Practical Strategies has decades of experience leveraging a variety of technologies
developing software for large and small companies. We combine deep expertise
in specific technologies and knowledge in major elements of software systems.
This combination of depth and breadth allow us to deliver higher quality functionality
in shorter timeframes by leveraging the strengths each component and leading
frameworks.
| Best-Practice Approaches |
Practical Strategies utilizes best-practices approaches to deliver high quality software in short cycles. We are flexible in the application of these approaches, tailoring them to the needs of each situation in order to maximize the effectiveness of the overall team.
In early 2007 Practical Strategies will commence operating a branch in China. As we combine the best agile practises and offshore development, we will be able to provide the highest quality results for the lowest prices and in the shortest timeframes.
Traditional software development methodologies assume that software development effectiveness is best achieved by through planning, up-front analysis, and tight management controls. Unfortunately, this assumption is seriously flawed. In our experience, much valuable functionality is identified and implemented efficiently as software evolves and users react and utilize it. Agile methods embrace this reality and utilize approaches that leverage the value from continuous evolution while maintaining focus on delivering valuable functionality as soon as possible and maximizing return on investment.
Practical Strategies has been an early practitioner and advocate of Agile methods
(see http://www.agilemanifesto.org)
for software development, with a focus on:
" Delivering the highest possible return on investment (ROI) by investing
in the most valuable features
" Ensuring end-user satisfaction by including the end users feedback as
part of the process
" Rapidly and continuously delivering valuable working software
" Optimizing development team productivity by creating an environment where
people feel empowered to make a difference.
" Minimizing risk by identifying and resolving unknowns as early as possible
Agile methods utilize disciplined methods that have been proven by several studies to improve productivity, such as test driven design (TDD), continuous integration, and refactoring. Utilizing these methods allow us to embrace and respond to change, resulting in software that has fewer defects, better usability, and greater value to our clients.
Often a major challenge for software development teams is the effective teamwork between business users and technology engineers. Practical Strategies experience in both of these roles allows us work effectively with business and technology personnel and to improve the collaboration between these areas.
Effective business requirements gathering continues to be one of the most challenging
aspects of software development, driven by the challenge of not knowing all
usage scenarios up-front and the fatigue of fleshing out requirements from vague
concepts to the detail required for project success. Practical Strategies helps
business users and technology engineers develop and collaborate on business
requirements.