Procedures
Clients review each 2-week sprint and we facilitate recorded comments about changes to the plan.
Sprint planning is conducted away from Client at the end of each sprint by the team, while the project and development issues are in in the frame it is far better and easier to define the next stage. We present the completed Sprint, an Invoice and Sprint Planning as the final act of that Sprint. The Invoice is only for that Sprint for an ongoing commercial client, for most at the start it will be an ORDER for the NEXT sprint paid in advance.
New ideas will extend the number of sprints and hence the budget in a predictable manner.
At the end of each Sprint we will only release code that is a) tested, and b) already reviewed by the client on a staging site.
During a Sprint, the client may communicate new ideas that are then incorporated into the next sprint. We practice TDD so our release will work, however, any post-release bugs are fixed immediately and urgently.
We invoice at the end of each Sprint, and the Client can see the Sprint planning. We may have to wait until the Client signals that they want to advance to the next version before the next Sprint commences.
Invoice settlement is required so we can pay contractors before we carry on with the next sprint. Of course established repeat Clients may have a monthly invoice settlement and Sprint continuity, or a new Client can achieve the same service level with a down-payment.
If a new Client does not pay at the end of the sprint, eventually the staging site is archived but our repository of released code is kept available so that paid-for code can be released to a live site on our Cloud server or however the Client wishes to release code.
The strict rules are:
1. Client is established or is in credit by taking an offered down-payment option or pays on invoice before the end of the next sprint: we give that client continuity of development.
2. A Client can always access their paid up source code repository. We maintain three versions: Staging => NextLive => Live. NextLive is a prepared production environment that can be tested but only seen by the client, the developer(s). When the release to Live occurs, this is the code that will run.
3. A client can simply stop when they want. At project completion or at any release stage. We may propose new plans for a client which they do not have to act upon.
4. A client pays by Sprint a charge based on the number of developers required – that has been estimated. If more developers are needed to reach a deadline, or specialists need to be employed for a single sprint, then that would proportionately increase the charge for that Sprint. If it is more than one developer added, we may ask for a down-payment.
5. Developers are paid at the end of each sprint. Developers commit to only release code that they have tested, that QA has reviewed and accepted, and during sprint planning to create a fair and realistic plan. Sprint planning is a confidence building and essentially a selling exercise for the next Sprint.
6. Clients who have completed a full and active project with RemoteDevelopment and who have their live site hosted with us will generally be offered a monthly invoice.