by Ben Berry, Project Manager

“Simplicity is complexity resolved.”

--Constantin Brâncuşi

At Extanto, project management is the ability to combine the arts of estimation, calculation, and follow-through, while staying on time and under budget.

There are certain components that are common to every project. We have standardized these components -- web site structure, navigation systems, methods for user interaction -- into processes that we re-use, saving you money and us time. We use that time on the parts of your job that are customized, that deserve and get our best creative effort.

Our process begins with requirements gathering, or finding out all the things that you want the finished product to do. We ask you about your needs, and then we listen to your answers -- and your questions. Our goal is to get a clear idea of what you want, what essential qualities the finished product must have. We focus equally on functionality and design in order to deliver results.

We work with you to define a project's constraints, which are the boundaries that define where a project ends. So for example, a given project might be budgeted for $10 thousand, be due in three months, and provide e-commerce transactions in both U.S. and Canadian currency. Not $12 thousand, not four months, and not EU currency. It's constraints are its limits, and while they are constantly in flux, some constraints have primacy.

At Extanto, we understand this, and know it's important for us and our customers to know a project's constraints, and which ones take precedence. Why? Because constraints determine the primary evaluative baseline of the project -- the criteria by which we make decisions mid-stream. Needs and requirements can change; knowing the constraints lets us make good decisions on what to do about those changes.

We recognize that no two projects are exactly the same. We believe that there is no one standard methodology which can effectively manage each project from its beginning to end because, to be effective and workable, project methodologies should be appropriate to both the task and the organization.

At Extanto, this is how we build quality into your project -- from the very beginning.