Project deployment guide for SoftwareSupp Experts

We’ve noticed that there are multiple challenges you have to deal with when you work on IT projects. Bearing this in mind, we’d like to share with you the project deployment rules we apply for every SoftwareSupp project. If you are a SoftwareSupp Freelancer, please keep in mind that by starting your SoftwareSupp project you agree to do your best to implement the practices given below into your work with a client.

Starting a project  

On the project launch, you are connected with your customer and get our support to successfully complete the project. After a customer decides to accept your offer, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a URL redirected to the project board. At the same time, he/she is requested to share access to software tools through a secured password submission form in the project board.

Together with sharing the password, he or she will be requested to provide additional materials and information, to allow you to successfully start the project.

Welcome message

We believe communication is a crucial part of every project, so at the beginning of the project please make sure to send a welcome message to the customer and let them schedule a kick-off call with you.

Kickoff

During your kickoff meeting, agree with the client how you’ll communicate during the project and let them know how frequently you are going to inform them about progress and results. (Do this at least on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.)

Keep in mind that key milestone updates have to be reported on the SoftwareSupp project board.

Communication

When it comes to ongoing project communication, it's a good idea to choose one communication channel to discuss foundation project topics. We recommend doing this in the SoftwareSupp inbox so you can easily reference them again later.

Meetings

A customer can book a meeting with you at their convenience using the meeting system available on the project board. You will receive an email notification about a booked call. (Please make sure you have added your availability).

If you are not able to attend the meeting, be sure to inform the customer that you are not able to attend, and propose an alternative time to meet.

It is a good practice to send a meeting agenda for every meeting and follow up after the meeting with a 3-point summary sent to the customer.

Project Management  

Project management is a crucial part to deliver the project successfully. For every project make sure your work is planned and reported through a dedicated project board in weekly or bi-weekly sprints:

- Set up delivery dates for each milestone. (Customers have to be sure how much time it takes to complete a milestone and when it will be ready). Also, it lets you eliminate possible risks and delays as well as adjust your efforts.

*Please remember that milestone status/completion has to be reported on the project board; it is required for the final project approval and settlement.

- Plan tasks for each bigger project milestone.

You can plan tasks directly in a project board just by clicking “add a new ticket”

- Schedule weekly or bi-weekly summary and planning calls with the customer.

Every time you’ll need to find the best time to talk with a customer use a meeting system at SoftwareSupp. Based on your availability, a customer can book a call or remote session with you.

Project manager

If you need additional help with project management, you can always contact the SoftwareSupp project manager who will answer all of your questions and help you facilitate the process with your customer.

When it comes to the SoftwareSupp project manager, he can be of any help with organizational matters, including problem-solving, and answer all of the questions about the scope changes or adjustments.

He can also help you execute all the necessary materials on time, e.g. password, specification.

Remember that SoftwareSupp provides additional tools to effortlessly manage processes of document storage, secured password sharing, and guide a customer to use them.

To summarize, the aim of the entire project management process and project manager support is to make sure the project will be delivered on time while maintaining a focus on quality.

Dev work/release

Any dev work is performed according to the following process:

a) The solution is always first implemented on the person or company’s staging environment

b) The solution is tested for proper setup/implementation

c) The solution is released on the production or is simply duplicated for the company’s

production in the same way it was implemented on staging

Support and support queries

Responsiveness is critical to forming a successful working relationship, especially when we are talking about providing support for the customer. Bearing this in mind you should reply to customer support queries within 1 hour from query submission.

In the answer providing:

a) an answer to the customer question (the real and actual one, once we don’t know something and need to check on this, we say this)

b) estimated time to complete the task and set up the solution (in hours or a time when it can be implemented)

Every answer (if it requires action on the developer/expert side) is followed by:

a) A ticket created in the system

b) Actual action/activity taken by the dedicated expert/developer

If you don’t know the answer:

a) if it can be checked quickly (e.g. by asking our community/partners) we 1. Inform the customer that we’re checking on this, 2. check with community/expert partners (e.g. by posting the query as a ticket). An internal SoftwareSupp team or a community of expert can then come back with the answer to the question and support a developer/expert in solving the issue)

b) if it requires research (e.g. dev issue) we 1. Inform the customer that we’re checking on this and that it might take a while and 2. check on this by running research.

Quality monitoring

You should know that a customer and all project members receive a weekly quality monitoring survey in which they can share their thoughts and feedback about your work and service quality.

Communication, respect, and responsiveness are critical to forming a successful working relationship. Follow the mentioned guides and they will help you complete the project successfully.