elementary™ - Content & deliverables

"Working with a methodology during project planning and execution is aimed at making people work in a more effective way. It ensures your and our project resources spend more time working towards the goals of the projects and less time on figuring out the next steps. "

elementary focuses on a critical documentation set and believes that deliverables should only be created and maintained for that matter, when they have real value. That is why elementary is bundled in a document pack, which is a comprehensible document library for BI & PM projects.

elementary
is bundled in a comprehensible document pack

elementary document packelementary document example

These documents can be found within a folder set which is specific to the different phases of our methodology and forms a set of pre-defined and adjustable templates ensuring a quick start-up of and continuation throughout the project. They show a consistent appearance and use the same terminology throughout. Depending on the project specifics, certain templates can be mandatory or optional.

A non-exhaustive list of templates includes the following:

  • project initiation document
  • project plan
  • requirements analysis
  • information matrix
  • source-2-target mappings
  • source analysis
  • risk log
  • naming conventions
  • layout conventions
  • test plan
  • architecture document
  • etc.

elementary is designed to be flexible and scaleable, i.e. it can be adapted to the size & complexity of your project and organization. This enables our consultants to apply it in the most efficient way and minimize overhead and wastage.
In all cases, it is a great start versus a blank sheet of paper when embarking on a Business Intelligence, Performance Management or Advanced Analytical initiative !

Hereto elementary also includes our so-called "data warehouse calculator module, which, based on a number of parameters, such as number of sources, reports, dimensions, facts, cubes, complexity etc. is able to automatically calculate all data warehouse and business intelligence efforts split out in hours and days by phase, task and project role. It allows for questions such as
"time required within a certain phase for a certain project role" or "cost associated with a certain activity" to be easily answered. It also allows projects to be scoped and budgeted as part of a multi-year BI or PM Roadmap. The "data warehouse calculator" was produced based on best practices and numerous previous project experiences. In the meantime this module itself has been successfully used at different customers for a wide variety of projects.

While the methodology strongly favours a common sense approach to project management and execution, it also makes sure that some key areas such as documentation, risk management and scope control are not forgotten.

elementary has successfully been integrated with the leading project management methodologies such as PMI and Prince2. Our element61 project managers are certified & experienced professionals in these project management methods.

PMI & Prince2 logo

elementary is designed to deal with every aspect of project delivery at any stage in the project lifecycle. It will organize the project in a number of phases, each of them with clear steps, roles, activities, techniques, documents and deliverables. Everyone involved in the project, as well as the customer, at any time, knows where they are in the project, what has been delivered and what are the next steps.

The methodology identifies seven crucial phases in delivering project success within the given time, budget and quality requirements. Each phase will have clear entry and exit criteria, and a number of elementary deliverables. It is important to note that elementary is not necessarily a waterfall approach, but that iterations and cycles between different phases are possible and sometimes even desirable.

High-level overview of the elementary methodology


 

elementary methodology