Includes the analysis and definition of current and future-state operational component architectures for a specific business objective and the preparation, coordination, and execution of a Solution Architecture Plan. Significant components of the plan include requirements analysis, the understanding of the client's mission objectives, and the definition of multiple characteristics (technical, mission, economic, political, social, etc.) of the domains in which the client enterprise operates. Other components of the plan include risk and impact analysis, definition of enterprise business functions and their processes, and analysis of implementation resources required to implement required business capabilities. Finally, the plan includes a set of operational metrics that establish the performance, effectiveness, reliability, accuracy, worth, cost, and other factors that can be used to evaluate the developed capabilities.
Includes the development of an enterprise strategy and Enterprise Architecture Plan for IT and the application of architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute their overall IT strategy. The Enterprise Architecture Plan defines what an organization does; who performs individual functions within the organization; how the organizational functions are performed; and how information are used and stored. The Enterprise Architecture Plan is a living document that must be maintained n order to keep pace with changes in technology and organization focus.
Includes design specifications that frame the operational capabilities needed by the enterprise. As the operational environment changes, the enterprise's objectives, and the design specifications to meet those objectives, must also change. Solution design provides a living framework upon which technology, business functionality, operational change, process change, and organization change are assessed, researched, and developed to facilitate the integration between technology planning and the enterprise business process.
Includes implementation, test, and integration of software and infrastructures, as well as providing physical and functional solution artifacts for the desired capabilities defined by the business. This also includes supporting the development of rapid prototypes to demonstrate, validate, and socialize the use of enterprise capabilities, processes, and operational concepts. Prototypes are used to solicit feedback from enterprise SMEs, managers, decision makers, operators, and users, and to support review, vetting, and approval of architectural/implementation artifacts.
Includes the coordination and communication of organization teams to support the delivery of capabilities required to support business objectives. Facilitation ensures total participation of client stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs), managers, engineer, operators, security specialists, developers and users, in all activities related to product development to facilitate true ownership of the delivery process. Agile facilitators are often referred to as Scrum Masters.
Includes the implementation and management of processes and procedures through which production environments are updated with the most marketable features set forth by the business. Release Management is primarily responsible for release planning strategy, automated build and continuous integration methods, and the coordination and communication between business stakeholders, engineering, production support, and development teams.
In the modern world, pressure abounds from all directions to drive greater results out of fewer resources. At first, this tightrope can seem daunting, if not impossible, to achieve. However, driving more from less becomes realistic through a disciplined approach to decide what is truly important to an organization while focusing limited resources into only that which is truly important. Accelian's Strategy and Financial Management expertise solves the puzzle of doing more with less by turning organizational priorities into a shared vision that is aligned with available resources.
Accelian delivers proven experts to meet clients' management consulting needs. Our team has extensive experience in all aspects of organizational management, including:
To best manage an organization, there needs to be a clear set of goals and objectives understood and pursued by all the members of that organization. Without a clear direction around which to coordinate efforts, the organization will begin to undergo a vicious cycle of lost focus, declining morale, and declining mission results. While Accelian finds that almost all clients have a document called a strategic plan, we have found that many still struggle to control costs, maintain workforce morale, and improve organizational results. In these cases, the available strategic plan is almost always out of date, is not integrated with other management efforts, lacks achievable objectives understood by organizational staff beyond senior leadership, and pays no heed to prioritization. In other words, among many other challenges, their organization is disconnected from its strategy. To begin a virtuous cycle yielding improved mission results, the organization must refocus itself on achieving what is truly important within its organizational constraints. Accelian works with organizational leaders to establish a vision for the organization. As importantly, we turn to working level staff for potential tangible actions that will achieve the target vision. From these inputs, we look to build a focused set of realistic, resource-constrained objectives aligned to achieve the established strategic vision.
With a sound strategy in place, the long-term challenge to set and keep the organization moving toward its stated plan begins. First, Accelian assembles existing detailed programmatic, operational, capital, and financial plans. We then move to align and reassess these plans in light of organizational strategic priorities and operational impacts. To execute this task, Accelian places great emphasis on understanding the links between financial flows and operational success so that revisions of financial plans do not cut off important operational capabilities or create excess operational capacities not needed due to constraints in other operational areas. We then propose recommended plan changes to the client for consideration. Once the client approves final revised detailed programmatic, operational, capital, and financial plans - Accelian next works with the client to strengthen controls that ensure adherence to plans. Further, we look to push the planning process forward in time to better project organizational results from given resources constraints. Finally, we strengthen and encourage the embedding of change management processes into core operations that encourage plans to evolve without deviating from core strategies and established budget levels. This fosters a virtuous cycle that will coordinate organizational efforts toward observable improvements in mission results.