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Assessment Services |
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Capstone views our relationships with our customers as strategic partnerships.
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 initiatives 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.
Our customers' success is our primary goal.
Often, partnerships of this nature begin with a more in-depth assessment of the state of a
potential customer's enterprise. 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 Strategic IT Consulting practice excels in conducting assessments targeted at a
number of aspects of a customer's business, focused on where the most value can be uncovered.
Four areas specifically have yielded tremendous value to our customers over the last several
years:
Enterprise Assessments,
Application Assessments,
BI Assessments, and
Agile Assessments.
Enterprise Assessment
Capstone has been brought into an organization countless times to assess the general state of
the enterprise. The goal of an Enterprise Assessment is to make general observations on
ways to improve the Information Technology supporting an organization, resulting in targeted,
actionable recommendations on new initiatives, new projects, organizational changes, business
process engineering, etc. Capstone then documents and delivers the customer's vision, the
future state architecture, plans for people, processes, data and technology, a detailed
roadmap for moving forward to achieve the plan, etc.
| Capstone role: |
Enterprise Architect |
| Key components: |
One-on-one staff interviews |
| Interview targets: |
Senior IT and business leadership, key staff recommended by leadership |
| Results delivered: |
Actionable recommendations, industry best practices, business process diagrams, enterprise architectures, high-level roadmap |
Application Assessment
Much more narrow in focus, a technical application Assessment focuses on a single application or suite
of tools in the information enterprise. Here, the goal is to understand the vision and goals
of the organization's leadership for the application, as well as its current state. Capstone
then delivers actionable recommendations for advancing the target application to achieve the
goals of the business.
| Capstone role: |
Application Architect |
| Key components: |
One-on-one staff interviews; system, code, documentation, database introspection |
| Interview targets: |
Project manager, application architect, senior developers, QA staff, senior IT and business leadership, other staff recommended by leadership |
| Results delivered: |
Actionable recommendations, industry best practices, information flows, application architectures, code reuse recommendations, detailed roadmap |
BI Assessment
Capstone's Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing practice offers specialized BI assessments,
targeted at understanding an organization's readiness for BI and the current state of their
initiative. Capstone's BI architects then make concrete recommendations for maximizing the
success of their initiative.
| Capstone role: |
Business Intelligence Architect |
| Key components: |
One-on-one staff interviews |
| Interview targets: |
Senior IT and business leadership, initiative sponsor, governance board members, and other staff recommended by leadership |
| Results delivered: |
Actionable recommendations, industry best practices, staffing/governance models, BI system architectures, data architectures, data warehouse designs, pilot project recommendations, detailed roadmap |
Agile Assessment
Struggling to deliver software on time and on budget? Capstone offers a brief, introductory
assessment of your organization's software development processes, conducted by one of
Capstone's Principal Consultants, who are experts in project management and Agile principles.
The goal of the assessment is to plan business process changes and chart a course to embracing
iterative and incremental principles in software development. This maximizes the probability
of the success of key projects, and delivers value to the business through those projects
early and continually.
| Capstone role: |
Agile Project Manager |
| Key components: |
One-on-one staff interviews |
| Interview targets: |
Senior IT and business leadership, head of the PMO, key project managers, and other staff recommended by leadership |
| Results delivered: |
Actionable recommendations, industry best practices, personalized Agile methodology, mentoring / training plan, pilot project recommendations |
Capstone's various assessments evaluate our customers' enterprises, applications, and business
processes against industry best practices, as well as our experience and expertise. Our focus
(or methodology) is to make concrete recommendations regarding five key areas: the
people,
plan,
process,
data, and
technology necessary to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of
their IT organization.
People
Having understood our customer's vision for their business, Capstone makes recommendations based
on industry best practices for optimal roles, responsibilities, and organizational structures
necessary to achieve the company's goals. Where necessary, Capstone also works with the customer's
executive leadership and key stakeholders to develop governance models customized to the
organization’s unique environment, needs, and personality.
Plan
Capstone assists our customer's leadership in articulating its vision and defining realistic
goals for the organization, as well as the approach necessary to achieve their goals and
maximize their return on investment in IT. This includes documentation of current and future
architectural and organizational states. Capstone also delivers a roadmap for the next few years,
which gives our customers an objective plan against which to execute.
Process
Capstone identifies and evaluates key business processes that are either holding the company back
or operating inefficiently. We then make concrete, actionable recommendations for process
improvement to support best practices and the vision of the organization.
Data
Capstone understands data strategy, architecture, appropriate modeling techniques, data quality,
data stewardship, and other critical themes / principals associated with building effective BI
programs and other 21st century IT initiatives. As a part of an assessment, Capstone makes
specific, targeted recommendations on mentoring in these areas as projects are initiated.
Technology
Technology is the last focus of the assessment, not the first. Without addressing critical needs
regarding people, plan, process, and data, focusing on technology will only get the cart before
the horse. With the solid foundation of addressing these other four key areas in place, Capstone
assists customers in identifying the best technology to achieve their goals and deliver solutions
on-time and on-budget.
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
- 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.
To give a sense of Capstone's typical assessment findings reports and presentations, here are a few screenshots
from a recent, actual BI assessment project with a multi-billion dollar international customer.
Example of an Assessment Findings Report
Example of an Assessment Findings Presentation
Whether your business is small or large, multi-national or mom-and-pop, Capstone can tailor an assessment to
fit your needs and offer significant value. Contact Capstone today to discuss the possibility of an assessment
in your organization.
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