The Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) represents an industry-proven IT solution development approach with five well-defined phases that take into account development of requirements, architectural design, detailed software design, software development, system testing, and managed release cycles.

a-cto leverages the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), which is a five-phase project approach, executed across multiple customer engagements of various project types and sizes. Microsoft further enhanced this framework and developed the Microsoft Services Delivery Methodology (MSDM). MSDM provides guidance on activities and deliverables that may be executed within each of the MSF phases. Each phase will provide input for the subsequent phases.

Envisioning
The purpose is for the team and the end-user to create a high-level view of the project’s goals and constraints. The main deliverable during this phase is the vision/scope document, which contains an analysis of the business need or problem, a description of the goals for the product, an outline of the solution concept, profiles of the product’s users, and design goals

Planning
During the project planning phase, the team drafts a functional specification, a master project plan, and a master project schedule. The functional specification describes what will be built and includes content such as product design goals, requirements, features, and dependencies. The master project plan describes the deliverables, and activities and tasks, and resources to create the deliverables, and the master project schedule describes when and in what order those activities and tasks will happen.  The project planning phase culminates in the project plan approved milestone.

Developing
During the developing phase, the team focuses on building and testing the solution. This phase involves a series of internal releases, developed in parallel and in segments, to measure the progress of the solution and to ensure the pieces of the solution are synchronized.  Testing must ensure that the solution will solve the organization’s business problem. Toward that end, testing will include coverage testing, which is aimed at testing the features and code of the solution, and usage testing, which is aimed at testing the solution in its expected user environment. Another important part of the developing phase is bug management and triage.   The project developing phase culminates in the scope complete milestone, at which point all features of the solution should be in place, the solution should be ready for formal stabilization, the team members and key stakeholders should have agreed on what features to include, and materials to support user performance should be at a baseline.  

Stabilizing
The stabilizing phase begins with beta tests of the solution and ends when the end-user accepts the solution as complete. Testing during this phase emphasizes usage and real-world testing. The team focuses on resolving and triaging bugs and getting the solution to the point where it is ready to roll out to all users. The stabilizing phase culminates in the release milestone. When the team reaches the release milestone, the solution is transferred to operations management and, and the team begins the MSF process again, preparing for the next release

Deploying
The deploying phase includes all aspects of moving the completed system into production.  All training tasks, including training for end users, administrators, and other stakeholders are completed during this phase.  Once training is completed, the solution is signed off accepted by the Client and a-cto transfers control of the system.  At this point, the maintenance plan is executed, and feedback on subsequent phases and possible future feature additions is captured.