At Summa, we take pride in getting it right the first time. Doing that takes discipline and an established methodology. That’s why many of our engagements begin with one of our various Business Assessments. And, once we start a project, we embrace the principles of the Rational Unified Process® (RUP) and appropriately “right size” it to fit our client’s needs. The hallmarks of the Summa methodology are:
One benefit of applying the signature “iterative approach” of RUP to requirements, design and development is that it balances demand across staff – better leveling the use of analysts, developers, QA and operational staff over the lifecycle of the project. Iterative development also drives out risks by exposing functioning slices of the system in progressive chunks, as contrasted with a high-risk, "big bang" methodology where all components and changes are rolled out in a single "go live" deployment. Some specific risk reductions include:
Building for the long-term and for low-cost maintainability by your own IT team requires applying best practices for architecture: diagramming the current state, identifying the end goal, and mapping a transition plan and reference architecture. We help firms identify the right IT backbone structure to support their ongoing and anticipated business needs – from systems integration to Service-Oriented Architecture strategy. The bottom line? With the client, we establish the right application architecture, and then design accordingly. That’s the way we like it.
We work to understand your business processes and to find the right technology solutions to achieve your business objectives – not the other way around. Summa leverages our consultants, business partners and extended network to ensure that industry and vendor technology trends are applied. When we know what you do, we’re effectively positioned to help you do it better.
Our goal is to enable your team to be successful beyond our departure and long afterward. Throughout the project, we execute against a knowledge transfer roadmap, forming a two-way bridge between Summa consultants and the client’s project team in each phase of the project implementation. We strongly encourage sharing on-site work space to ensure that close alignment.
During the architecture, design, implementation and deployment phases of a project, Summa’s experts will instruct essential technical and process skills while your team gains valuable hands-on experience building your own systems. In conjunction, we pay careful attention to the proper timing of technical training for your staff as they learn to apply new technologies.
Assessments clarify matters and help clients match business and technology needs, understand their options, the associated feasibility and cost, the potential impact of technology change, and how – or whether –to get started on a project. When you’re considering diving into a resource-intensive, enterprise-wide project, or if you’re struggling with how to resolve the problem of a business application that doesn’t live up to your organization’s needs, it’s often beneficial to take a step back to assess the situation.
Assessments use a customized combination of structured, intensive workshops and analytical breakout sessions and tools to clarify root causes and what matters most. They shape “next steps” and point to answers by involving key stakeholders, prioritizing and agreeing upon project goals and expected outcomes, determining measurements for project success, and identifying the various options and associated timetables, needed resources and budgets. Summa’s offerings include the Modernization Assessment, Enterprise Architecture Assessment, and the Business Value Assessment of Portals, and more.