Project Audit\Assessment

Overview

FIOS Information Systems Professional Services division has experienced resources to conduct audits of projects that may be having issues with budget, time or resources. In addition, as part of this service, FIOS can provide a technology assessment of a client’s technical infrastructure (software and hardware) to support business requirements.

Approach

Upon start of the assignment, FIOS will focus on getting up to speed on the project architecture, design, structure and status. All existing documentation will be reviewed and evaluated. Typically, FIOS will then meet individually with client management, vendor management and select members of the project to get an understanding of their individual perceptions of the project. Questions include:

·         What do they think was done right?

·         What do they think was not done right?

·         What would they have done differently?

·         Is the solution under development going to meet the business strategies and requirements?

·         What are the issues, are they technical, vendor related, management related, skill related, political, etc?

·         Are these issues being addressed to their satisfaction, and if not, what are the barriers to success?

These interviews will then be followed by an assessment of various areas of the project including:

·         The technical design.

·         The project plan.

·         Baseline analysis (scope, time line, costs).

·         The project management methodology.

·         Software development methodology

·         Build versus buy analysis.

·         Specific areas as stipulated by the client.

Deliverables

The deliverables will be discussed and determined prior to assignment commencement.  Typically, such assignments produce a report that includes the following:

·         A brief review of project background and history, focusing on those decisions and events that directly contributed to current project status.

·         An assessment of the current project status. Is the project meeting the business requirements?

·         A technical assessment. What is driving the technical design? Is the technical design solid? Are there cost effective alternatives?

·         A project plan assessment. Is it realistic? Are there cost effective changes that can be made?

·         A project management assessment, including vendor relations, resource availability and skills.

·         A software development assessment? What methodology is being used? What is the quality of the project documentation? How is the knowledge transfer process being handled between the vendor and client?

·         A set of recommendations for how (and if) to proceed with the project.

Oracle

Overview

FIOS Information Systems Professional Services team has experienced technical and functional resources to support a client’s Oracle installation. FIOS Information Systems focus is in the areas of:

·         Application Upgrades

·         Performance Tuning

·         Database Patches

·         Database Installation and Upgrades

·         DBA Support Activities

The types of activities listed above are time consuming yet critical activities for your business. By using FIOSto manage your system improvements, you free up your internal resources for your key Information Technology projects.

Approach\Deliverables

The standard approach for a project would include a review of existing documentation to understand the client’s installed Oracle architecture, design and installation. During this review, an inventory would be completed of the systems, customizations, interfaces, reports and integrated third party products. As part of this process the following deliverables would be delivered to the client as part of the initial phase.

·         The technical approach and design.

·         The project plan.

·         Test plan and strategy.

·          Baseline analysis (scope, time line, costs).

The type of project will determine the scope of deliverables. For example, dB patches will not require all the deliverables that would be required for an Oracle upgrade.  Additional deliverables that would take place with an application upgrade include the following:

·         A gap analysis between the current and requested business functionality.

·         An impact assessment on the existing customizations to determine what is automatically migrated versus what needs to be manually migrated. This would include the resource estimates for the manual migration.

·         A data impact assessment to determine which if any data is not automatically migrated as part of the upgrade process.

·         A review of the business process requirements and the impacts on business functionality from the upgrade.

·         An analysis of the new application features and functions and the training impacts on the end user community.

PeopleSoft

Overview

FIOS Information Systems Professional Services team has experienced technical and functional resources to support a client’s PeopleSoft application. FIOS Information Systems focus is in the areas of:

·         Customer Relationship Management

·         Financial

·         Human Resources

Approach\Deliverables

The standard approach for a project would include a review of existing documentation to understand the client’s installed PeopleSoft architecture, design and installation. During this review, an inventory would be completed of the systems, customizations, interfaces, reports and integrated third party products. As part of this process the following deliverables would be delivered to the client as part of the initial phase.

·         The technical approach and design.

·         The project plan.

·         Test plan and strategy.

·          Baseline analysis (scope, time line, costs).

The type of project will determine the scope of deliverables. For example, application patches will not require all the deliverables that would be required for an application upgrade. Additional deliverables that would take place with an application upgrade include the following:

·         A gap analysis between the current and requested business functionality.

·         An impact assessment on the existing customizations to determine what is automatically migrated versus what needs to be manually migrated. This would include the resource estimates for the manual migration.

·         A data impact assessment to determine which if any data is not automatically migrated as part of the upgrade process.

·         A review of the business process requirements and the impacts on business functionality from the upgrade.

·         An analysis of the new application features and functions and the training impacts on the end user community.

Project Management Office

Overview

FIOS Information Systems Professional Services division has experienced resources to establish and manage a Project Management Office (PMO) for our clients. Our PMO practice allows our clients to focus on the delivery of key organizational projects.

Approach

The PMO is not the project manager for the projects but instead supervises a set of Project Managers and provides oversight on their deliverables. The PMO is the focal point to manage and resolve issues for projects contending for the same set of resources (time, money, people, etc.).  A Typical PMO is responsible for deploying a consistent project management methodology within an organization. This typically includes processes, templates and best practices.

Value add of a PMO for the client

·         Standardization of processes, templates and best practices for the organization.

·         Facilitates improved project communication due to standardization of best practices.

·         Provide project management training to staff.

·         Provide project coaching.

·         Tracks basic information on the current status of projects and provides status of all projects in a consistent manner.

·         Track organization wide metrics on the state of project management, project delivery and business value.

·         Manages the change request process for a given project and helps to prioritize business priorities against the project schedule and budget.

Deliverables

The PMO will be responsible for providing project metrics in the form of an Executive

Dashboard Report, typical dashboard reports provide status on:

·         Project activities to date.

·         Planned project activities for the upcoming reporting period.

·         Budget versus actual for dollars spent.

·         Completed versus planned project deliverables.

·         Project status report, which include a project risk assessment.

Note

If the scope of the engagement does not warrant a PMO, we can provide the Project Managers with the skill sets needed to ensure the successful completion of a client’s project.