.: Dextra Technologies :.

Dextra Technologies recognized the benefit that the investment in processes definition and improvement represents for the software industry. Through the years Dextra invested time and effort to create a set of processes compliant with industrial standards and aligned to our customer needs. In 2006 Dextra processes were formally assessed and complied with CMMi Level 3 specification giving us a better opportunity to improve our efficiency. Now we are introducing Agile methodologies like SCRUM in our processes portfolio, convinced that improving our process assets with new trends will deliver a higher benefit to our customers.

This balance on disciplined and agile approaches allows Dextra to define a process strategy

in accordance with our customer’s needs.

The first step to define our process strategy starts with the elicitation of the factors involved in the project such as:

The technology in use
The time to market or specific quality requirements that need to be accomplished by the project.

Once we know which methodology to use, a tailoring of the process assets is made in order to align this methodology to the specific project needs. Life Cycle definition provides a complete roadmap of the project giving the possibility to align milestones and deliverables acceptance activities with the stakeholders.

Process Tailoring allows the definition of the artifacts to be used and the modifications needed in them when necessary. Modifications to templates and reports format can be done to facilitate the communication flow between Dextra and the customer. The result of these activities is a project with a completely defined set of processes suitable for the project's specific needs. This flexibility is the result of Dextra’s ownership of the process assets, avoiding external dependencies in process assets that could not allow us to align to customer needs defining the best set of practices for the project.

Examples of main practices integrated in or processes include:

Iterations/Sprints definition and process tailoring aligned with projects characteristics.
Complete Requirements and Configuration Management of products during the project.
Risk and Change Management throughout the project´s life cycle.
Continuous product quality verification with activities such as unit tests, peer reviews and code reviews.
Web based defect management during internal Verification and customer Validation activities.
Quality assurance audits to ensure process adherence during project.
Continuous improvement of our processes and practices.

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The usage these practices give us the capability to support with the same confidence in our results, projects with different characteristics like size, complexity and and uncertainty (e.g. related with new technologies).

To fully support these practices during the projects, we have a set of artifacts like:

Document templates needed to create high level documentation necessary to support complex solutions.

Guidelines that capture the organizational knowledge and let us transfer our platforms experience and design best practices to the products we develop.

Checklists to support verification activities during software development.

Internal Training Material to reduce the familiarization period with platforms and technologies in use.

And software tools that provide support in management activities as well as development activities during the project life cycle.

The usage of Agile methodologies in recent projects give us a new set of tools and elements that we can be used in our projects. The benefit is the possibility of using this new approach with costumers that are familiar with this methodologies.