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Technical Assessments
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Capstone views our relationships with our customers as strategic partnerships.
Our customers' success is our primary goal. Capstone desires to develop a long-term relationship
with a customer, standing behind them and serving as a vital resource to help ensure the success
of the many complex software development efforts underway within their walls. Our standard approach
is to make customers
successful in the eyes of their customers and constituents by remaining somewhat invisible to the
outside world, yet invaluable to them internally as a resource from whom they can seek advice or
solicit feedback, or with whom they can share or brainstorm ideas.
Often, partnerships of this nature begin with a more in-depth assessment of the state of a
potential customer's enterprise, applications, or data. These assessments are quick hits, typically 2-8 weeks in nature
(depending on the scope), and always deliver tremendous value to our customers. Capstone uses
these assessments to make clear and definitive recommendations regarding our customers' software
systems, business processes, policies, and personnel.
Capstone's Custom Application Development practice excels in conducting in-depth technical assessments
of the applications deployed in the customer's enterprise. We have assessed in-production systems
to help determine where upgrades, refactoring or other modifications are necessary. We have inspected
legacy systems, including mainframe systems, to build a plan for modernizing the application and its
environment. We also excel in evaluating the state of incomplete software to determine how much of what
exists can be reused and define a concise roadmap for completing the system. In any case, our focus
is on uncovering the most value in a short amount of time, maximizing reusability, and adhering to
proven industry standards and best practices.
Capstone understands that a great many considerations play a part in building a successful enterprise
application. Therefore, when conducting an indepth technical application assessment, our Principal
Consultants follow a proven methodology to evaluate customers' systems. We focus on the
following four areas of evaluation. Why? Because we know from experience that evaluating and
understanding these four bodies of information allow us to offer our customers the best concrete,
actionable recommendations possible to make their software development activities successful.
Enterprise Environment
Although Capstone's focus is on the application itself, no software system is built in a vacuum. The
enterprise environment must be considered when evaluating the potential success or failure of a
distributed application. This includes understanding quality of service (QOS) objectives, service
level agreements (SLAs), the enterprise infrastructure (network, hardware, etc), integrated systems,
configuration of OEM or third-party applications and components, data and databases, and more.
When conducting an assessment, Capstone makes sure that none of these areas creates a significant
roadblock or impediment to success of the application (or associated software development project).
We also make high-level recommendations on the best approach to take in the enterprise to create
the ideal environment for the application(s) in question to thrive.
When deep infrastructure issues arise or knowledge required of a particular commercial application
exceeds Capstone's core expertise, we will bring in partners who are experts in the required areas
to make sure that we deliver to our customers the best possible assessment of their software and
its environment.
Software Artifacts
Enterprise software is also not just code. Far more is required to build a 21st century application
than a little Flex, Java, or C#. We know what to look for when evaluating planned or in-flight
applications to help you build a roadmap to success. When performing a technical assessment, we
consider business, functional and technical requirements, architecture, design specifications,
class diagrams, test plans, entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) and other database models, souce
control, etc. These and a host of other factors - in addition to the code and design practices in
place - allow us to present our customers with the most complete view possible of where they're at
and where they're going.
Software Code
Of course, the code itself is important too. Capstone's software engineers maintain deep expertise
in a number of software development languages and environments, such as Java, C#, VB, JavaScript, PHP,
HTML/CSS, Flex, and many others. We have extensive experience building software in the J2EE,
LAMP, and .NET worlds on platforms from Linux to Windows to UNIX. And we have delivered dozens of
successful projects using tools like Eclipse, IntelliJ, MS Developer Studio, and others.
Capstone consultants are intimately familiar with the design patterns, frameworks, industry standards,
and best practices necessary to make your software development efforts successful. We also know how
important it is to evaluate and understand deployment units, interfaces, persistence model,
integration points, configuration points, etc. When performing a technical assessment for our
customers, we consider all these factors, pouring over code and architecture/design documentation to
achieve a well-rounded view of the application and its environment.
Finally, when necessary, Capstone leverages appropriate code analysis tools like JProbe and other
profiling or code organization tools to analyze complexity and performance in the code. This is
particularly important for very large, complex software efforts, when analysis software is required
to get the most out of a technical assessment.
Project Artifacts
Last but not least, Capstone analyzes the project artifacts associated with the development of the
software in question. Understanding the SDLC approach, project plans, communication plans, risk
management process, change control, issue tracking, etc are just as important as understanding
design patterns and code. Capstone can then make specific recommendations, based on our experience,
regarding the best methodology and approach to completing the software on time, on budget, and on
target.
Capstone's methodology for conducting assessments has been proven over many years. As part of that methodology,
Capstone delivers a targeted set of artifacts upon completion of the assessment, which communicate clear, specific,
actionable recommendations to the customer. We have experienced many times that Capstone's roadmaps and program plans
have been the basis of successful project work for years to come following the assessment.
Key assessment deliverables include:
- Weekly status reports
- Assessment findings report and presentation
- Multi-year roadmaps
- Validated current state and proposed future state architectures
- Best practices on topics like coding standards or architectural principles
- Strategic mentoring plans
Not all of these artifacts are delivered for each assessment. Nor is this an exhaustive list. Capstone tailors
every assessment to the individual needs of the customer, in order to provide the most possible value in the time
allotted.
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