Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) provides proven practices for planning, building, and deploying a variety of technology solutions, combining aspects of software design and development, and building and deploying infrastructure into a single project life cycle for guiding technology solutions of all kinds.

MSF is a powerful tool that helps organizations address the key areas critical to technology project success—people and processes. Originating from real-life projects of Microsoft and its partners and customers, MSF provides guidance on the application of a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, and proven practices that have been shown to help prevent the primary causes of technology project failure.

MSF Team Model

The MSF Team Model defines the roles and responsibilities of a team of peers working on information technology projects in interdependent multidisciplinary roles. The following diagram is a logical depiction of the model.

The MSF Team Model is based on the premise that any technology project must achieve certain key quality goals in order to be considered successful. Reaching each goal requires the application of a different set of related skills and knowledge areas a team role cluster (commonly shortened to role). The related skills and knowledge areas are called functional areas and define the domains of each role. The Program Management Role Cluster, for example, contains the functional areas of project management, solution architecture, process assurance, and administrative services. Collectively, these roles have the breadth to meet all of the success criteria of the project; the failure of one role to achieve its goals jeopardizes the project.

Therefore, each role is considered equally important in this team of peers, and major decisions are made jointly, with each role contributing the unique perspective of its representative constituency.

MSF Process Model

Every project goes through a life cycle, a process that includes all of the activities in the project that take place up to completion and transition to an operational status. The main function of a life cycle model is to establish the order in which project activities are performed. The appropriate life cycle model can streamline a project and help ensure that each step moves the project closer to successful completion. A simple view of the MSF Process Model life cycle is shown below.

The MSF Process Model is based on phases and milestones. At one level, phases can be viewed simply as periods of time with an emphasis on certain activities aimed at producing the relevant deliverables for that phase. However, MSF phases are more than this; each has its own distinct character and the end of each phase represents a change in the pace and focus of the project. The phases can be viewed successively as exploratory, investigatory, creative, single-minded, and disciplined. Milestones are review and synchronization points for determining whether the objectives of the phase have been met. Milestones provide explicit opportunities for the team to adjust the scope of the project to reflect changing customer or business requirements and to accommodate risks and issues that may materialize during the course of the project.

Additionally, milestones bring closure to each phase, enable a shift of responsibilities for directing many activities, and encourage the team to take a new perspective more appropriate for the goal of the following phase. Closure is demonstrated by the delivery of tangible outputs that the team produces during each phase and by the team and customer reaching a level of consensus around those deliverables. This closure, and the associated outputs, becomes the initiating point for the next phase.

MSF Risk Management

This six-step risk management process is integrated with the Team Model through definitions of role responsibilities and with the Process Model through specified actions and milestone deliverables, creating a comprehensive approach to project risk management. The process ends with the learning step—the capture and retention of the project risks, mitigation and contingency strategies, and executed actions for future review and analysis. This knowledge warehouse of risk-related information is a necessary part of creating a learning organization that can utilize and build upon past project knowledge.

MSF Readiness Management Discipline

Readiness can be measured at many levels—organizational, team, and individual. At the organizational level, readiness refers to the current state of the collective measurements of individual capabilities. This information is used in both strategic planning and evaluating the capability to achieve successful adoption and realization of a technology investment.

Readiness management guidance applies to such areas as process improvement and organizational change management. It provides guidance and processes for defining, assessing, changing, and evaluating the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for project execution and solution adoption.

Each person performing a specific role on the project team must be capable of fulfilling all the key functions that go with that role. Individual readiness is the measurement of each team member’s current state with regard to the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to meet the responsibilities required by his or her assigned role.

Readiness management is intended to ensure that team members are fully qualified for the work they will need to perform.

Source : http://www.microsoft.com/msf

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