Project Management - with a focus on CMM Level 5

Project management is at the center of the delivery of all Bleum software outsourcing services. Bleum takes a rigorous, systematic approach to Project Management ensuring reliability in commitments, and transparency of progress and risks to Bleum's customers. All Bleum Project Managers are Project Management Professionals (PMP) as certified by the International Project Management Institute (PMI). The principles and metrics of PMI are tightly interwoven into Bleum's project management process so that projects can best synchronize with the development teams of our international clients.

• The Bleum Project Management Process includes:
• Project Estimation
• Project Planning & Tracking
• Requirements Analysis and Management
• Risk Management

Our specific project management strengths include:

English - All our project managers have strong verbal and written English. Our English Only policy ensures a high English proficiency level at every grade of employee. With every employee being able to communicate in English we enjoy effective and efficient communication with our customers.

Estimation - Critical to project planning and management is estimation. For all projects we complete two separate estimations using two methodologies. Depending on the project , Bleum's estimation team will select two of the following methods to document scope and estimate effort, schedule and cost: Work Breakdown Structure, Function Point, Component Sizing, Historical Analysis, and Wide Band Delphi. The results are compared and a conclusion drawn. Over the last year Bleum has utilized this process to achieve an average schedule variance across all projects of less than 3%. We are continuously refining this to ensure greater accuracy.

Project Planning & Tracking - To create the project plan, the Bleum Project Manager will elaborate on the WBS (work breakdown structure) estimation. Once the appropriate level of detail has been achieved, the project plan is base-lined. Bleum makes significant use of the Earned Value metric for tracking project status and performance. Other tools include weekly status reports and conference calls. These enable the Bleum team and the Customer Project Manager to review progress, risk and take any indicative corrective actions to keep the project on track to meet its quality, cost and time objectives.

Requirements Analysis and Management - The Bleum process is largely based on RUP (Rational Unified Process), and as such, relies on use cases to drive user requirements. Our systematic approach ensures that all requirements are addressed properly throughout the lifecycle and enables accurate reporting of progress implementing them.

Change Management - When changes come to the Bleum project manager he/she will document the change and deliver a Change Request (CR) document to the client project sponsor. The CR will include effort, cost and schedule impact. Only changes approved by the client will be implemented and the project plan will be updated.

Systems - Supporting Bleum's offshore development process is Hydra, Bleum's Quality Management System. Hydra is a web-based project management system integrating all the key development processes and tools, as well as a customer communications portal providing customers real-time visibility into project status.