As a company in its infancy – first year in business – we recognized early, the importance of a strong foundation. As such, we defined this years thematic goal as ‘Getting Down to Brass Tacks.”

We are a project-oriented business, as such, we concluded that how we execute our projects had to be number one priority.

As Project Management Professional’s (PMP), we naturally steered to the guidelines in the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) for insight. From that, we established our own methodology; one that fit our current model, and offers the scalability we require. That’s how “The 4 D’s” came into existence.

Our Methodology – The 4 D’s

The 4 D’s are:

• Discovery
• Design
• Development
• Deployment

All alone, there is nothing special about these elements. If anything, they can be considered to be over simplified. For us though, they are perfect – intuitive, easy to implement and more importantly, manageable. Each element could be easily applied to any of the various existing models like: Water Fall, Scrum, Xtreme Programming, etc…, which was another attribute we liked.

What is important to note is that The 4 D’s is structured around a collaborative model; it is facilitated through the integration of technology, specifically Basecamp by 37 Signals.

This is the first of a series; we will provide other posts that talk specifically to our methodology and the philosophical differences between it and other management models, while also providing deeper insight into the methodology elements (The 4 D’s).