Effective soft. company overview & it competence

©2010 EffectiveSoft, Ltd.
Minsk, Belarus
Company Overview
&
IT Competence
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

Company Overview & IT Competence 2
©2010 EffectiveSoft, Ltd. Tel: +375 (17) 284 60 00
Minsk, Belarus e-mail: contact@effectivesoft.com
Contents
1 COMPANY OVERVIEW..................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CAPACITY............................................................................................... 3
1.2 LOCATION INFRASTRUCTURE........................................................................................................... 3
1.3 COMPANY BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 4
1.4 TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE ......................................................................................................... 4
1.5 STAFF INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................................ 5
2 TECHNICAL AND KNOW-HOW CAPACITY ..................................................................................... 6
2.1 SERVICES ..................................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 CUSTOMERS.................................................................................................................................. 7
2.3 PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................... 11
2.4 CERTIFICATION ............................................................................................................................ 11
3 MANAGEMENT COMPETENCE ..................................................................................................... 12
3.1 BUSINESS MODELS ...................................................................................................................... 12
3.1.1 Offshore Development Center.............................................................................................. 12
3.1.2 Time&Material ..................................................................................................................... 14
3.1.3 Project-based ...................................................................................................................... 15
3.2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................... 16
3.3 DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................... 16
3.3.1 Rapid Prototyping................................................................................................................ 16
3.3.2 Concurrent Development..................................................................................................... 17
3.3.3 Agile.................................................................................................................................... 17
3.4 RISK MANAGEMENT...................................................................................................................... 17
3.4.1 Risk Categories ................................................................................................................... 17
3.4.2 Risk Management Workflow ................................................................................................ 18
3.4.3 Top Risk Factors and Mitigation Steps................................................................................. 20
3.5 RELEASE MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................... 21
3.6 CHANGE MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................ 21
3.7 QUALITY MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................ 21
3.8 COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................... 22
3.8.1 Internal Communication....................................................................................................... 22
3.8.2 External Communication...................................................................................................... 23
3.9 CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY................................................................................................... 24
3.9.1 Confidentiality...................................................................................................................... 24
3.9.2 Security............................................................................................................................... 24
4 CONTACT US ................................................................................................................................. 27
5 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................... 28

1 Company Overview
A glimpse at:
Economic and Financial Capacity
Location Infrastructure
Company Background
Technical Infrastructure
Staff Infrastructure
1.1 Economic and Financial Capacity
EffectiveSoft states that the company has never experienced the following cases before:
 insolvency or/and liquidation
 unprofessional conduct or/and any disputes
 tax any other financial indebtedness
1.2 Location Infrastructure
Belarus, the former Soviet Union republic with a wonderful meaning “White Russia”, is situated in
Eastern Europe. Since 1990’s, when the Republic of Belarus regained its independence, the
Belarusian IT outsourcing industry has been developing at a fast pace. Belarus has been recently
acclaimed as a low-priced yet high-quality IT outsourcing location. Belarus inherited the Soviet
reputable educational system and solid technical infrastructure. Today, the Belarusian IT
outsourcing seems to be the most mature as compared to that of the former USSR countries.
EffectiveSoft is located in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Minsk is within a two and a half hour flight
from Frankfurt. It takes one hour to drive from the national airport to the offices. The company
representative will meet you at the airport and accompany to the hotel, which is a 5 minutes drive or
15 minutes walk from the offices—one of the best hotels in the city, with a magnificent view. The
offices are located in the center of the city with all necessary infrastructures nearby including
banks, restaurants, lunchrooms, parking places, shops, etc. There is a metro network in the city
and many leisure time opportunities.
FAST FACTS ABOUT BELARUS:
Location: Eastern Europe; borders Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Population: 9,9 million people; 1,7 million in Minsk.
Language: Belarusian, Russian
Currency: Belarusian ruble (Br)
Universities: 30 (43 high schools in total)
Territory: 207,600 km
2
.
Average temperature: January–6o
C, July +19o
C.
Time zone: GMT + 2.
Airlines: Belavia, Lufthansa, LOT, Austrian Airlines et al. Direct 2-way flights to West Europe,
Ireland, UK.
Visa: For the citizens of foreign countries, except CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), an
entrance visa is required. You apply for it either in the embassy of the Republic of Belarus in your
region or get it directly at Minsk airport upon your arrival. If you plan your visit to our company,
please let us know in advance so that we are able to prepare a corresponding invitation for you in
due time.

Geographical location of Belarus (at the border line between East and West Europe)
MORE ABOUT BELARUS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus
http://aci.byelarus.com/
“Outsourcing in Belarus”, the article by Ulad Radkevitch:
http://www.belarusembassy.org/science/outsourcing.htm
1.3 Company Background
EffectiveSoft, Ltd. was founded in 2000 as a privately owned company. The owner of the company
is a citizen of the Republic of Belarus who had formerly held an executive position in an IT
company in Silicon Valley. EffectiveSoft started its IT activity with custom software development,
Flash content development, and semantic research and development. Subsequently, EffectiveSoft
diversified into a web design, web development, database and e-commerce solutions, etc., and has
turned into a full-range offshore IT outsourcing company. The number of the company employees
has grown from 30 to 250 people.
1.4 Technical Infrastructure
 Offices are located in the center of Minsk, the capital of Belarus
 Working area is over 2400 square meters
 Space for about 250 people is equipped with modern workstations
 50 servers for e-mail, FTP storage, Web content
 Dedicated 24/7 Internet connection 10 х 10Mb/sec

1.5 Staff Infrastructure
Over the years, EffectiveSoft has created a solid community of qualified and highly-motivated
persons. They each expand creative and productive potential of the company. All of the company
members have bachelors or master’s degrees in the following sciences: mathematics and
computing, physics, radio electronics, linguistics, economics, and some other sciences. The
majority of the staff has at least four years of the domain-specific experience.
EffectiveSoft possesses enough intellectual and technical resources to realize a project of different
complexity and scope, being able to attract necessary specialists on demand.
EffectiveSoft people:
o VP Business Development and CEO
o Project Managers
o Software engineers
o System analysts
o Business analysts
o GUI designers
o QA engineers
o System administrators and technical support specialists
o Semantic Tools team (linguists and semantic software engineers)
o Designers (graphic designers and animation artists)
o Technical writers
o Translators
o Domain experts and scientists
o Sales and marketing personnel
o HR manager, office manager
o Accountants

2 Technical and Know-How Capacity
A glimpse at:
Services
Customers
Proprietary Software Development
Certification
2.1 Services
Branch Services
Used technologies & programming
languages
Custom software
development
C++ Programming
Java Programming
UNIX/Linux software development
Embedded software development
Database design & consulting
Application re-engineering and re-factoring
Creation of distribution packages with application installation
Packaging and CD cover design
Manufacturing packaged software
Technical support
Visual C++
Visual C#
Visual
Studio
Visual
Basic
FoxPro
Win32 API,
COM,
DCOM,
COM+,
MDAC
MAPI,
CDO,
ActiveX
.NET
ASP/ASPX
Java
Servlets
JSP
PHP
Perl / CGI
Internet/Intranet software
development
Client/Server application development
Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)
Distributed application development
Corporate document management systems
Corporate knowledge management systems
Intranet search engine development
Question-and-answer systems
Internet/Intranet collaboration tools
C / C++ / GNU C / Java / .NET,
COM/COM+/DCOM, RMI,
XML/SOAP, Java Servlets / JSP,
PHP, CGI / Perl, Client/Server,
Distributed Processing, Macromedia
Flash / Action Script, MySQL /
InnoDB / PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL
/ Microsoft Access, ORACLE,
Interbase, IBM UDB, IBM DB2, IBM
Informix, HTML / DHTML, CSS,
JavaScript.
Mobile software
development
Custom mobile applications development
Games design and development (based on J2ME or Brew OS)
Embedded mobile applications building
Porting of mobile application to other platforms (Platform
Migration)
Creating websites for mobile devices
Mobile applications in .Net and Java
Mobile payment services, SMS applications development, and
some more
iPhone, Palm WebOS, Symbian,
Android, J2ME, Brew, BlackBerry,
Windows Mobile, PalmOS

Branch Services
Used technologies & programming
languages
Web development services General
Web-Design
Web-Programming
Flash/Flex and multimedia development
Content management system development & integration
Internet collaboration solution development
Browser-based software development
E-Commerce
Online product catalogues
Online-shops
Payment system development & payment gateway integration
Supply management systems
Other
Online data and knowledge bases
Online games and entertainment
C / C++ / GNU C / Fortran / Java /
BASH / SH.NET,
COM/COM+/DCOM, RMI,
XML/SOAP, Java Servlets / JSP,
PHP, CGI / Perl, Client/Server,
Distributed Processing, Macromedia
Flash / Action Script, MySQL /
InnoDB / PostgreSQL, HTML /
DHTML, CSS, Java Script.
2.2 Customers
At the customer’s request, we provide our services under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Therefore, we cannot list here all of our customers. Some of them are listed below.
Customer: Arkitektkopia AB, Sweden
Project Arkitektkopia
Short description A family of distributed Web-based applications that provides online ordering of drawings and color prints
for the building and construction industry in Sweden.
Project metrics Total project development time: 4 years
Lines of code: C# - 389,967, HTML/CSS/JavaScript - 18,458
Tools used: MS Visual Studio .NET, MS Visual Source Safe, MS Visio, Sybase Power Designer, MS
Technologies used: C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, IIS, MS SQL Server 2000, HTML/CSS/JavaScript
Windows Clustering Service, Network Load
Business model Offshore Development Center
Customer: Savuti, USA
Project Flex Interactive Map
Short description The Flex interactive map is designed for sharing images and videos with the public online. The media
data are linked to the specific locations on the geo map. Each photo and video has the geo tag –
information about latitude/longitude and altitude of the place where the snap was made.
Project metrics Total project development time: half a year
Lines of code: PHP – 400 000, Flex – 28 000
Technologies and Tools used: CakePHP, MySQL, AMF3, Subversion, Visio, DreamWeaver, Adobe
Flash CS3, Adobe Flex Builder 3, Apache

Languages used: PHP5, JavaScript, SQL, Action Script 3
Business model Project-based
Customer: WorldMate, Israel
Project WorldMate Live
Short description The application serves as a personal travel companion, allowing travelers to manage their entire
itinerary – flights, hotels, meetings, and ground transportation.
Project metrics Total project development time: half a year
Lines of code: 148 000
Technologies and Tools used: .NET Compact Framework 1.0/2.0, MS SQL Server Compact Edition,
MFC, WINAPI, STL, COM, OLEDB, J2ME, MIDP 1./2.0
Languages used: C++, C#, Java, SQL
Business model Time&Material
Customer: QuizWinners, Holland
Project Online Multiplayer Quiz-Game Platform
Short description The system provides the ability to organize online quiz competitions between real players. Games are
turn-based and players have to answer a set of questions as fast as possible to win a prize.
Lines of code: about 300 000
Technologies and Tools used: Zend Framework, Zend Studio, Mysql/InnoDB, Power Designer,
Subversion, Visio, DreamWeaver, Adobe Flash CS3, Idea, ElectroServer, Apache, Memcached, Nginx,
TestTrack, Subversion
Languages used: PHP5, Java, ActionScript, JavaScript, HTML, XML, SQL
Customer: Scandinavian Kyl&Frys AB
Project Routine Business Registration
Short description A program for recording staff business activities and managing supplemental information in the
company.
Project metrics Total project development time: 3 months
Lines of code: about 12,000 code lines and 2,000 SQL-script lines
Tools used: Builder C++, MS SQL Server 2000, Power Designer
Technologies used: Win API, Client/Server

Customer: Edgetrade Inc, USA
Project Edgetrade Trading System
Short description Stock data control and statistic system. Combines market data, execution to multiple destinations, order
management and risk management into one easy to use application.
Part 1 – Servers. Execution Management System is a high-powered, low latency platform for market
data and execution that maximizes speed in delivery of quotes and routing of orders building on Java
technology.
Part 2 – Client. The rich SWING–based network application for real time stock data analyzes statistic
collection and forecasting.
Part 3 - The control and management servers system. Back Office System is a web based application
allows users, accounts, links, connections and other parameters remote management of Execution
Management System servers.
Lines of code: Java – 439 211, HTML/CSS/JavaScript/JSP – 23 404
Tools used: Eclipse, Idea, CVS, MS Visio, Sybase Power Designer, Toad
Technologies used: J2SE (Core, Socket, Thread, SWING, Java Beans), J2EE (JDBC, JNI, JMX,
Servlets, JSP), XML (XSL, XSLT, Xpath)
Customer: ValTech Communication, USA
Project CLEC CRM
Short description A web-based Customer relationship Management (CRM) system for tracking ordering and billing
processes between customers and vendors through the mediation of ValTech for the
telecommunications industry of USA.
Project metrics Total project development time: 3,5 months
Lines of code: C# - 275 296, HTML/CSS/JavaScript - 98 757
Tools used: MS Visual Studio.NET, MS Visual Source Safe, Sybase Power Designer, Crystal Report
Customer: TruCode LLC, USA
Projects Search Drug and Account Maintenance
Short description Windows application that provides searching capabilities over drugs database.
Windows based accounts configuration tool.
Lines of code: C# - 485 516, HTML/CSS/JavaScript - 112 019
Tools used: MS Visual Studio .NET 2005, MS Visual Source Safe, MS Visio, Sybase Power Designer
Technologies used: C#, WinForms, ADO.NET, MS SQL Server 2005, XML, XSLT, CSS
Libraries: Composite UI Application Block, DotLucene search engine
Customer: EffectiveSoft Ltd., Belarus

Project Intellexer Enterprise Solution
Intellexer SDK
Short description Intellexer SDK is a suite of libraries designed to bring the power of Natural Language Processing to your
software solutions. Using its API you can either enhance your existing solutions or build custom
semantics-powered programs. Intellexer SDK features include: Natural Language Search, Document
Summarization, Comparison and Categorization.
Intellexer Enterprise Solution is an enterprise-level knowledge management system, incorporating
information search and retrieval techniques, document summarization, comparison, categorization and
clusterization.
Project metrics Total project development time: 3.5 year, more than 50 men-years R&D works
Tools used: MS Visual Studio .NET, MS Visual Source Safe, MS Visio.
Technologies used: Windows API, C#, ASP.NET, IIS, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Linux API, C++
Customer: 3alab, USA
Project 3alab iRadio
Short description A new way of capturing and collecting music from radio stations over the Internet. It allows listening
most of media streams, provides on-the-fly audio stream processing, automatically cuts continued
online stream in separated media files and assigns corresponding names.
Other self-design features:
Conversion from different audio formats to MP3
GUI with self-design control engine that includes Flash control units
Media CD recording
10 band equalizer
Full range MP3 toolkit
Record time scheduler
Project metrics Total project development time: 6 months
Tools used: MS Visual Studio .NET, MS Visual Source Safe
Technologies used: C/C++/C# XML, XSLT, COM/ACTIVEX, MS Media SDK , RealOne SDk, MP3
toolkit
Customer: IWINT Inc., China
Project Content Development Tool (CDT)
Short description Web-based applications for developing technical articles for Knowledgebase filling. It provides support
for complicated article handling workflow, supports several user roles; provides reach set of reports.
Lines of code: C# - 32,914, ASPX/HTML/CSS/JavaScript – 9 965
Tools used: MS Visual Studio .NET, MS Visual Source Safe, Sybase Power Designer

2.3 Proprietary Software Development
EffectiveSoft provides various software development services based upon its proprietary linguistic
platform, Intellexer™. Semantic technologies used in Intellexer™ facilitate development of such
solutions as:
 Semantic analysis of documents
 Natural Language Interface for Search Engines
 Document Comparison
 Document Summarization
The advantage of the Intellexer™ linguistic platform is its flexibility. The Intellexer™ SDK can be
used for the development of your custom solutions. Intellexer components can also be delivered in
the form of ready out-of-the-box solutions.
Examples of such solutions include:
 Question-answering Systems
 Natural Language-based Search Engines
 Document Summarization (Summarizer)
 Document Comparison (Document Comparator)
 Document Categorization (Document Categorizer)
2.4 Certification
1. EffectiveSoft became ISO 9001 Certified, February 22, 2008.
(http://www.effectivesoft.com/news_iso_9001.html)
2. EffectiveSoft as a MS Gold Certified Partner, January 22, 2008.
(http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-BY/partners/EffectiveSoft-Ltd-
4296630072?LocId=393766898327352 and
http://www.effectivesoft.com/news_ms_gold_certified_partner.html)
3. EffectiveSoft as a MS Certified Partner, August 15, 2006.
(https://solutionfinder.microsoft.com/Partners/PartnerDetailsView.aspx?partnerid=a8ef326f294b40
41977ad4b1b138a9f2 and http://www.effectivesoft.com/ms_news.html)
4. A Certificate in Project Estimation from the Institute for Software Research International at
Carnegie Mellon University, February 19, 2005
(http://www.effectivesoft.com/news_software_research_certifies.html)
5. A Certificate in Risk Management from the Institute for Software Research International at
Carnegie Mellon University, November 27, 2004
(http://www.effectivesoft.com/news_risk_management.html)

3 Management Competence
Our managerial and technical competence in providing outsourcing software development services
results from our knowledge and experience in:
Business models application
Project management
Development management
Risk management
Release management
Change management
Quality management
Communication management
Confidentiality&Security management
3.1 Business Models
EffectiveSoft offers customers a choice of business models to mutually better launch the cooperation:
 Offshore Development Center
 Time&Material
 Project-based
3.1.1 Offshore Development Center
Description: Offshore Development Center (ODC) is a virtual team of software engineers. The team is
tailored to the customer’s project requirements and business needs and acts as the remote extension of
the customer in-house staff. This business model is of benefit for the customers who are in need for
offshore IT-specialists due to some reasons: onshore project time pressure, lack of some intellectual
assets, cost savings, and some other.
Payment schedule: The customer pays a weekly or monthly charge for the work done.
Contracts/agreements:
Obligatory Optional
 Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
 Consulting/Development Agreement
 Agent Agreement
 Framework Agreement

Cooperation scheme:
Responsibilities
Customer EffectiveSoft
Remote project management
 Provision of business requirements
 Project workload tracking
 Remote access to project-related documentation,
product codes, if acceptable
Documentation
 Product-related content
 Any papers/references that might be helpful to the
development and better understanding of customer’s
services/product specificity
 Optional: design sketches, technical requirements
Project management
 Team formation
 Tasks assignment
 Project schedule definition
 Change management
Team management
 Decision about the team scalability or downsize as per
project requirements
 Decision about the team skills
Product development:
 Programming/design
 QA/Testing
 Delivery after each milestone achieved
Reports
 Task tracking and reporting, weekly/monthly
Documentation
 Development and provision of requirements
specification, product design, system architecture,
where applicable
 Help systems, tutorials, administrator’s and end-user’s
guides
 Other product-, project-related documentation
 The scheme is negotiable

3.1.2 Time&Material
Description: EffectiveSoft offers the Time&Material model if the project requirements are foreseen as
dynamic. This model is of convenience when the team size, workload and project schedule need to be
modified in the course of the project.
Payment schedule: The customer pays a weekly or monthly charge for the work done.
Obligatory Optional
 Agent Agreement
Cooperation scheme:
Responsibilities
Remote project management and monitoring
 Project schedule definition (jointly)
 Workload tracking
Documentation
 Design and provision of System Architecture and
appropriate specifications
Product development:
 QA/Testing
Reports
 Task tracking and reporting, weekly/monthly
Team
 The scheme is negotiable

3.1.3 Project-based
Description:
EffectiveSoft usually offers this business model (sometimes called Fixed-price Model) for the projects with
a full development cycle, including design, programming, QA, technical writing, and technical support,
where the entire project scope is transparent and is not expected to be modified during the project
execution. All of the requirements to the product are collectively discussed with the customer and
described in the specifications and other technical documentation in details. EffectiveSoft thus estimates
the complexity of the project scope and submits a fixed project price, project timeframes and its
deliverables, which are stipulated in the Development Agreement in sufficient details. The project is
executed in strict accordance within agreed-on plan and budget.
! When the project scope and budget cannot be precisely defined at the moment, other business models are recommended.
Payment schedule:
Large projects Small projects
Alpha version – 30%
Beta version – 30%
Release – 40%
50% prepayment
50% after release
Obligatory Optional
 Agent Agreement
Cooperation scheme:
Responsibilities
Partial remote project management
 Project tracking
Project management
 Workload estimation
 Project schedule definition
Documentation
 Design and provision of System Architecture and Scope
of Work documents, other product specifications
Product development
 QA/Testing
Reports
 Task tracking and reporting, weekly
 Software builds, weekly
Team
* The scheme is negotiable.

3.2 Project Management
EffectiveSoft methodology to project management is based upon the industry standard Rational
Unified Process (RUP). It encompasses all workflows necessary to sequentially run the project,
including requirements management, analysis and design, implementation, testing, and
deployment. The documentation and design works are based upon the application of the Unified
Modeling Language (UML).
3.3 Development Management
Our methodology to software development is based on ISO/IEC standards, company norms and
approaches gained from our experience in providing outsourcing services. Depending upon the
customer’s wishes and project scope, we usually apply one of the three development models:
 Rapid Prototyping or
 Concurrent Development or
 Agile
3.3.1 Rapid Prototyping
Rapid Prototyping or Prototyping development model is normally applied for the projects with
fixed price and timeframes (Project-based business model). Prototyping assumes the application
of the system prototypes or mock-ups at the infant project stage. Accomplished with comments,
they visualize the future product by showing and explaining how it will work and look. This
enables the customer and EffectiveSoft soundly discuss mutual suggestions, make appropriate
adjustments and finally agree upon the product design, functioning and architecture. With
Prototyping, it is possible to make accurate project estimation, define milestones and deadlines.

Projects executed under the Prototyping development model cover the following stages:
1. Requirements Analysis
2. Prototyping
3. Project Estimation (including budget, schedule, and efforts)
4. Detailed Technical Documentation and Project Plan Development
5. Product Development, its Quality Management
6. Release (possible after-release enhancements)
7. Maintenance and Technical Support
3.3.2 Concurrent Development
Concurrent development model is usually applied for the projects with dynamic product
requirements and variable project scope in general, short iterations and continuous communication.
The work is proceeded on “as needed” basis. To keep the consistency of the project, the teams
work concurrently, where they interactively share updates, communicate the status of the finished
tasks and collectively trace the entire maturity of the project.
Concurrent development is of benefit for the projects with unclear requirements at the beginning,
being however précised during the project run. The product is thus developed incrementally taking
the advantage of synergetic attracting the most competent employees in order to meet the project
goals.
Concurrent development is preferable for Time&Material and ODC (Offshore Development Center)
business models.
3.3.3 Agile
Agile methodology is applied to the software projects that are vulnerable to emergent changes
(Time&Material). Its principles focus on delivery of working software iterations in short periods of
time. Each iteration is regarded as an entire software project, including planning, requirements
analysis, design, coding, testing, and documentation. Improvement or addition of new functionality
takes place within next iteration.
Agile methods emphasize face-to-face communication over written documents. Our Agile team
members are located in the same office, which promotes prompt knowledge sharing and better
understanding of urgent issues. Each team may include software engineers, product managers,
business analysts, QA members, interaction designers, technical writers, and other specialists as
per project scope.
3.4 Risk Management
For an outsourcing project, any condition or situation that occurs unpredictably or is likely to occur
and which threatens success of the project is considered as a risk. Already at the beginning of a
new project, EffectiveSoft thoroughly examines real and possible weak points in the project, which
may adversely affect the project, its scope, timeframes, budget, and product quality.
3.4.1 Risk Categories
We approach risk management activities throughout the entire project life cycle considering the
following risk categories:
 Technical, quality, performance risks. These are related to the introduction/application of new/
complex technology or development methods, unrealistic performance goals, unclear product
vision, ineffective requirements change management, lack of technical equipment.
 Project-management risks. These are related to poor allocation of time and resources,
inadequate project planning and task identification, unclear project ownership and decision
making, poor communication.

 Organizational risks. These are related to resource conflict with other projects in the company,
inadequate business decision making, poorly documented tasks and processes.
 External risks. These are related to legal or regulatory environment, labor issues, customer’s
unrealistic requirements or expectations, language barriers.
3.4.2 Risk Management Workflow
To identify and analyze the materialization probability of the risks, set their priority, and work out
corresponding mitigation strategies, if the risk exists, we go through the following consequent
steps:
Figure. Risk Management System
1. Risk assessment is the process of examining the project and identifying the areas of a potential
risk. For risk identification, we use a checklist of common risks from previous similar projects,
review of prior project plans combined with assumption analysis of project managers,
brainstorming, and interviewing of the subject-matter experts. After we reveal risk symptoms, we
move forward to risk analysis. Each identified risk is scored upon an assessment of likelihood and
its impact upon project objectives, including its cost, schedule, scope, and quality. See the
examples of ranking the risks in Table 1 and Table 2. By multiplying the values of likelihood and
impact, we arrive at risk score (risk factor) that shows the degree of risk danger upon the project.
The higher the score, the more high-risk issue. If one and the same risk event affects several
project objectives, we make the estimation as for several risks. Once all the identified risks are
rated, we make a list of risk prioritization, in which the risks with high score are placed first in
order to be handled immediately.
2. Risk control is the process of addressing the identified risks with adequate actions so that the risk
is either eliminated or decreased as a result. It starts with risk management planning. For each
identified risk we assign a suitable mitigation step, a responsible person and timelines. Risk
resolution and risk monitoring are continuously executed side by side throughout the project life
cycle to ensure that encountered risks do not threaten project objectives.
Table 1. Evaluating impact of a risk upon major project objectives

Project
objective/Rate
Very low
1-2
Low
3-4
Moderate
5-6
High
7-8
Very high
9-10
Cost Insignificant cost
increase
<5% cost increase 5-10% cost increase 10-20% cost
increase
>20% cost
increase
Schedule Insignificant
schedule slippage
<5% schedule
slippage
5-10% overall project
slippage
10-20% overall
project slippage
>20% project
slippage
Scope Scope decrease
barely noticeable
Minor areas of scope
are affected
Major areas of scope
are affected
Scope reduction
unacceptable to
the customer
Project end item
is effectively
useless
Quality Quality degradation
barely noticeable
Only very demanding
applications/applicatio
n components are
affected
Quality reduction
requires customer’s
decision making
Quality reduction
unacceptable to
the customer
Project end item
is effectively
unusable
*Rating is conventional
Table 2. Likelihood of risk occurring
Probability Rate
Low 1,5
Moderate 3
High 4
*Rating is conventional
Example of risk analysis
by “Impact x Likelihood=Risk Factor”
The development plan overlaps with a number of national holidays. This means
that some days are to be unproductive. It is a risk for project schedule. Its impact
can be rated to 2. However, the likelihood is high, rated to 5. The risk factor rating
is 10.
The mitigation process might include a number of various steps as agreed upon
with the customer, for example, project plan revision, its possible extension,
submitting task reports on the holiday eve in order to gain the time while the
customer prepares a feedback, even if it is a short-time iteration report; and some
other risk response actions.

3.4.3 Top Risk Factors and Mitigation Steps
It should be noted that projects of a common or recurrent type tend to have predictable character
of risk events and their consequences, while projects of first-of-its-kind character tend to have
more uncertainty. Thus, the application of the mitigation strategies depends upon the project
scope and the nature of the risk encountered.
Following are the top risk factors and the actions needed to minimize the risk consequences. We
accumulated these based upon our experience from the previous projects.
Risk Factor Risk Mitigation Steps
Unclear/ambiguous requirements to the service
to be provided
 Development/ provision of a detailed technical specification
 Prototyping development, revision by the customer
 Product delivery over defined milestones to ensure that the product meets
bespoken requirements
Unclear/ambiguous requirements to the tasks of
project participants
 Development/ provision of a detailed technical specification to be able to
fearlessly assign resources with tasks to the project
 Project plan development
 Assurance that the task is clear for each project player
Too many requirements changes  Definition of the procedure to handle the requirements
 Request for sign-off for the initial requirements specification from the
customer
 Payment on actual effort
Unachievable performance requirements  Transparent specification of the performance criteria, revision by the
customer
 Definition of the standards to be followed to meet the performance criteria
 Prototyping of critical performance transactions
 Execution of stress tests where possible
Communication gap  Development of the communication management plan
 Daily/Weekly Status reporting
 Conference calls, open meetings
 Remote access to project-related documentation, product codes, if
acceptable
New technology  In-house training in the new technology
 Onsite training, knowledge exchange
 Phased delivery, starting with the delivery of the critical modules
(application parts)
Wrong project cost estimation (either over- or
underestimation)
 Development/ provision of a detailed technical specification
 Assurance that all customer requirements are covered
 Request for sign-off for the specification from the customer
 Estimation by several project candidates
Schedule troubles  Development/ provision of a detailed technical specification
 Project plan development
 Task tracking and reporting
 Daily/Weekly Status meetings
 Definition of the process and approaches of how to handle changing
requirements, enhancements, etc., if the project is likely to incur them

3.5 Release Management
EffectiveSoft documents all decisions and requirements related to the product release in the
functional specification and project plan. If required, the configuration management plan is created,
which defines specific terminology and criteria applied for the evaluation of the project status.
3.6 Change Management
Any additional changes related to the product requirements, project schedule or budget caused by
external or internal circumstances are always discussed and agreed upon with the customer.
In the course of the project, Project manager is responsible for all the decisions related to any
changes. The Project manager monitors all the processes, coordinates them with R&D team and
with customers.
If the project is based upon the Time&Material business model, the customer is responsible for all
the decisions related to the changes in the product functionality and schedules.
3.7 Quality Management
To ensure the consistency and quality of all the processes involved into the project, as well as the
product quality, EffectiveSoft applies the Quality Management System mechanism. It is based on
ISO 9001-2000 requirements and ISO/IEC 12207-99 recommendations.
The company’s quality policy is described in “EffectiveSoft Quality Management System” manual,
which presents the organizational structure of the Quality Management System, defines company
management goals and liability concerning the quality, states authorities and responsibilities of the
staff within the system. The Quality Management System is applied for all the stages of the project
life cycle:
Figure. Quality Management System

* For more information, we refer you to the “EffectiveSoft Quality Management System” manual.
3.8 Communication Management
A great part of the project success significantly depends upon the volume, credibility, and
response time of information being exchanged between the project stakeholders. To efficiently
and timely manage the information turn round both inside the company and with customers,
EffectiveSoft practices internal and external communication management. The application of
methods and techniques depends upon information needs and available resources to meet those
needs.
3.8.1 Internal Communication
The objective of the internal communication management is to provide means and conditions for
the employees of the company to access, trace, be aware of and transfer necessary data
effectively and at the proper time. The table below outlines the target audience and methods of
managing communications in house.

Audience Communication objective Approaches Technology
Company
members
To be informed about the latest
company news, upcoming
events, and newly introduced
or modified internal norms and
regulations.
Weekly company meetings
Newsfeeds
Company policies
“Face-to-face”
Corporate and service-
dedicated web sites
Microsoft VSS
Project members To be informed about product
requirements and project
status, nascent events,
dynamic changes.
Technical documentation
Project plan
Daily&weekly status meetings
Daily&weekly status reports
Ad hoc conversations/meetings
SVN
Microsoft Office Project
“Face-to-face”
Microsoft Project Server
“Face-to-face”, IM systems, e-
mails
Team members To be informed about assigned
tasks, latest project status,
team task status, nascent
events, dynamic changes.
Technical documentation
Project plan
Ad hoc conversations/meetings
SVN
Microsoft Office Project
“Face-to-face”, IM systems, e-
mails
Microsoft Project Server
Language: Russian for internal policies, English for project-related documentation, emailing and
messaging.
Communication frequency: Formal communication procedures are on a regular basis as defined
by company policies. Urgent and risk issues are communicated as high-priority.
3.8.2 External Communication
The objective of the external communication management is to provide open communication
channels between the customer and the company, public audience and the company.
Audience Communication objective Approach Technology
EffectiveSoft
team
vs.
Customer
To agree upon cooperation
and product development
terms, jointly trace the project
life cycle and timely exchange
project-related issues.
Kick-off meeting
Security and confidentiality
Access to project-related
source codes and
documentation
Ad hoc meetings, online
Phone/Skype VOIP
NDA, Development Agreement
Via e-mail
Via web or VPN
IM systems (icq, MSN, Yahoo,
Skype), e-mails, GoTo Meeting
tool

conferences
Onsite trainings
Business trips
EffectiveSoft
vs.
Public Audience
To present corporate identity
online by publishing and
advertising relevant info about
the company, its services and
research works.
To establish a win-to-win
partnership relations.
Company profile and
presentations
White papers
Newsfeeds
Service-dedicated demo
shows
Participation in inland and
international exhibitions and
fairs.
PPT, PDF, WORD
documentation, corporate web
site
PDF documentation
Corporate and service-
dedicated web sites
Flash/Flex
Multimedia presentations and
printed marketing materials.
Language: English for project-related documentation, emailing and messaging. Other languages
for communication are German, French, and Italian.
Communication schedule: 24x7 (hoursxdays) responsiveness. Working hours of the development
team are adjusted to business hours of the customer from other time zone. Prompt notification
upon any delayed issue or decision-making.
Communication frequency: Formal communication procedures are on a regular basis as defined
by company policies and project plan. Urgent and risk issues are communicated as high-priority.
3.9 Confidentiality and Security
EffectiveSoft is committed to safeguarding each outsourcing project from internal and external
circumstances, which may cause harm to customers’ interests, services and secret information. To
ensure project success and its privacy, we apply the policies of Confidentiality and Security both
within the company and in business relationship with our partners, clients and service providers.
3.9.1 Confidentiality
If the confidentiality of the project and business relationship is important for the customer,
EffectiveSoft signs a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). The company guarantees that the source
codes, trade secrets, patents and any other information involved into the project is not exposed to
disclosure to a third party. This allows us to build a long-term partnership with our customers based
upon mutual trust and ongoing understanding.
3.9.2 Security
EffectiveSoft is responsible for the legal security of project-related information, including
documentation, source codes, reports, and product results from unauthorized access. For this
purpose, the company undertakes the following measures:
 At the customers’ request, a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is signed, where EffectiveSoft is
obliged to non-disclosure of customer’s trade secrets, copyrights, and other project-related
information to a third party.
 EffectiveSoft launches cooperation only with reputable and reliable clients, partners and service
vendors.

 Each company employee signs a separate NDA with EffectiveSoft.
 While hiring the personnel, the company screens the candidate for criminal background,
education and experience; and takes into account the references about the candidate from the
previous employer.
 EffectiveSoft works out and applies the technical policies to server security, access control, anti-
virus system, and private network.
Figure. Data migration and location topology
Data Security
For a company centralized data management, security, and back-up, EffectiveSoft uses the Veritas
BackUp Exec Family Technology.
The advantages of this technology for the company are as follows:
 Available Back-Up Agents, which support different platforms.
 Data management simplicity due to Single-Instance-Storage functionality.
 Secure and reliable data storage. Any platform- and supplier information and back-up copies are
easily identified, catalogued and restored.
We provide the security of all the data types that are related to any project and company processes
in general, including applications, platforms, and locations:
 Domain Directory Service data – Active Directory state.
 Mail-server data and related IIS metadata.
 Data related to and resulting from the product development, including source codes,
documentation, bug tracking and testing data.
 Microsoft SQL Server databases
 Web and FTP content
EffectiveSoft exercises the back-up policy as follows:

Full data back-up: every Saturday to the local safe storage and a later move to the remote general
safe data storage.
Differential data back-up: every day to the local safe storage and a later move to the remote general
safe data storage
Full data shot back-up: every first day of the month to local safe storage and a later move to the
remote general safe data storage.
Snapshot Back-Up and Data saving on DVD media: every month.

4 Contact Us
If you need some information that is not described in this document, please contact us.
Phone:
+375 17 2846000
+375 29 6558117
E-mail:
contact@effectivesoft.com
Address:
EffectiveSoft, Ltd.
3, Ya. Kolasa Str.
220002, Minsk, Belarus.
To learn more about our services and company, we invite you to visit the following our web-sites:
Our corporate identity online
Information about the company, offered services, applied technologies,
examples of our work with customers’ testimonials, and some more.
http://www.effectivesoft.com/
Our offshore development department
Information about the community, how to engage and work with
“Softvelopers”, work examples with customers’ testimonials, and some
more.
http://www.softvelopers.com/
Semantics-related services
Information about applied semantic technologies for the development of
SDK and custom solutions, online demos and free downloads of some of
our solutions.
http://www.intellexer.com/
Proprietary semantic solution – Document Comparator
Information about the software features, use case and online demo,
request for quote form.
http://comparator.intellexer.com/
Proprietary semantic solution – Document Summarizer
Information about the software features, including SDK and a software
personal edition; use case and online demo, free download of a Document
Summarizer personal edition, request for quote form.
http://summarizer.intellexer.com/
Proprietary semantic solution – Spellchecker
new
Information about the solution features, use case, online demo and
examples, request for quote form.
http://spellchecker.intellexer.com/
Our dedicated consulting group
Information about outsourced services, including domain- and technology-
related consulting, development of knowledge bases and computer-based
training systems, online demos, examples, request for quote form.
http://consulting.effectivesoft.com/
Our design team
Information about offered design services, including development of
multimedia solutions and corporate identity package, technical artworks,
web design, and some more.
http://design.effectivesoft.com/

5 Appendix
IT experience, in years
Know-How Persons
Totally 1+ 3+ 5+
ASP.NET 53 12 23 18
Delphi 5 5
JAVA SCRIPT 31 7 10 14
PERL 5 3 1 1
PHP 29 5 8 16
FLEX 15 9 6
Web Technology
ACTIONSCRIPT 43 8 18 17
MS SERVER
2000/XP/2003
240 122 73
Linux 13 4 4 5
Operating
Systems
MAC OSX 11 5 3 3
MS COMMERCE
SERVER
1 1
ORACLE APP
SERVER
8 3 2 3
WEBLOGIC 3 3
Application
Servers
WEBSPHERE 3 3
DB2 8 8
MS SQL SERVER 21 3 8 10
MYSQL 52 10 13 29
Database
ORACLE / ORACLE
DBA
8 2 5 1
iPhone 14 14
Windows Mobile 17 6 4 7
Symbian 9 1 2 6
Mobile Computing
Blackberry 4 1 3
ATL 32 17 15
COM/COM+ 20 4 12 4
J2EE 40 10 17 13
JAVA BEANS 40 8 16 16
JAVA SPACES 36 8 14 14
JMS 38 8 16 14
Component
Technology
J2SE 4 4
C++ 44 5 19 20Languages /
Development
VC++ 36 6 24 6

IT experience, in years
Know-How Persons
Totally 1+ 3+ 5+
C 20 8 12
C # 74 20 36 18
JAVA 46 15 17 14
MFC 36 6 24 6
ORACLE 9i
JDEVELOPER
8 1 3 4
VB 4 4
VB.NET 7 1 3 5
Tools
Powerbuilder 12 4 8
ADOBE
PHOTOSHOP
24 8 16
DIRECTOR 12 8 4
DREAM WEAVER 14 2 7 5
FIRE WORKS 9 2 7
FLASH 29 9 14 6
ADOBE
ILLUSTRATOR
12 2 5 5
ADOBE PREMIER 10 5 5
Multimedia &
Graphics
ADOBE FRAME
MAKER
8 4 4

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