"Assembla promotes our core values by reducing overhead, increasing organization and facilitating communication."

Jay Decker, Founder

Sproutlet builds dynamic web applications for startup companies and small businesses.  They use milestones to organize their tickets in two different ways.  In the initial development phase, they set up milestones for each release.  For more mature projects, they run a continuous development process with "On Deck" and "Backlog" milestones.

Sproutlet's vision

Each client we work with is unique, so we take the time to learn about their company and industry. We become an extension of their team rather than an everyday service provider.We love the challenge of uncharted waters and the passion that surrounds each project.

To remain nimble we employ "agile" development practices, working closely with our clients through each iteration of their application and responding quickly to change.

Once the product or service is launched we can facilitate the transition to an in-house team, or continue the relationship by building and maintaining the application.

We leverage Assembla in one of two ways:

1. Formal Iterations

For the first few months new projects are structured into formal iterations . We use milestones to mark each iteration deadline, and prioritize features accordingly from the Backlog. We use an "Off Cycle" milestone to track and resolve bugs.

This structure works well for completing the development of the core application.

However, when customers ask us to continue to support the application, and features and fixes trickle in from time to time, we find it is more efficient to shift over to what we call "ongoing integration" mode.

2. Ongoing Integration

For ongoing integration we work with only three milestones. Each new ticket that comes in is placed in one of these three milestones.

Urgent issues are placed in the "Off Cycle" milestone, which notifies our team they should be tested and pushed to production as soon as possible.

Items in the "On Deck" milestone should be completed within the next week. 

Roadmap and ‘nice to have’ items are placed in the "Backlog" milestone.

Each week we meet with the client to prioritize items and decide which to move from the Backlog to the On Deck milestone. The On Deck milestone always remains stocked with items, even if not all are completed in a given week.

This is a more informal approach than the one used during initial application development. 

We love Assembla because it allows us to adapt our process to customer needs almost effortlessly on a project-by-project basis.