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INITIAL CONTACT

tep one is for you to contact us via e-mail. Please remember to included as much relevant information as necessary. We will acknowledge immediately upon receiving your e-mail. It is very likely that we will exchange multiple e-mails with you in order to:

• Get to know each other
• Synchronize ideas with your objectives
• Set up an exploratory phone interview

Ideally there will be a great deal of information exchanged about the potential CI project and all necessary requirements to move to the next level.

INITIAL AGREEMENT

We, BALAM.ORG, and you, the Client, will draft an initial agreement which covers all of the following:

• Business Case
• Feasibility study
• Project feasibility
• General strategic guidelines
• General plan
• Statement of Work (SOW)

The SOW will include a comprehensive discussion of:

• Scope of Work
• Location of Work
• Period of Performance
• Schedule of Deliverables
• Applicable Standards
• Acceptance Criteria
• Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
• Special Requirements

CONSULTING AGREEMENT

Upon acceptance of the Statement of Work by both BALAM.ORG and the Client a "Consulting Agreement" is written. This agreement covers all duties, responsibilities and costs required for completion of the project as described in the SOW.

Usually a BALAM.ORG engagement is a “Time and Materials” or a Cost-plus Agreement. Additionally, BALAM.ORG and the Client will develop an initial staffing plan in order to get the CI project underway.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS

The Business Analysis phase concentrates on the Business Strategy, Business Architecture and any organizational changes triggered by the CI project. Furthermore, Business Analysis identifies business needs, business problems and solutions. Lastly, some of the information gleaned from the Business Analysis process such as Requirements gathering is utilized in putting together the overall Project Plan.

PROJECT PLAN

The development of a comprehensive (detailed) Project Plan is necessary. During this stage some decisions will be made in regard to the overall approach. For example, the Client might desire to start with a Pilot Project which is inherently smaller in scope and can show quickly the viability of a given CI methodology. On the other hand, the Client may feel that they can proceed into a full-fledged CI project immediately.

IT DEVELOPMENT

Due to the unique characteristics of every organization, almost all CI projects are custom projects. Additionally, Information Technology (IT) is critical to the success of most CI projects. The IT phase encompasses all aspects of IT Development, utilizing those methodologies most appropriate to a given project such as:

• Waterfall
• OOP
• Agile
• Scrum
• Structured programming
• Web development
• etc.

USER OPERATIONAL TRAINING

This phase covers all the CI project training requirements. It encompasses among many other, the following training:

• End-user
• Business Process
• Line function
• Staff function
• IT operations

DEPLOYMENT / OPERATIONS

This phase covers Deployment planning, execution, fine-tuning and maintenance.

POST DEPLOYMENT EVALUATION

This phase covers Open item resolution, Project and Contract closure and the preparation of a “Lessons Learned” Report.