Large Government Client
To address the business problems associated with financial management functions and processes, a large-scale VIP government client completed an integration study to replace its existing 160 financial management systems, which were more than 20 years old, and varied from centralized mainframe systems to distributed client-server applications to individual desktop databases and spreadsheets, with a single enterprise system using a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. The strategic objectives were to enable the Department to make the best investment decisions by providing all facets of financial management information, enable the management of the cost of doing business, and establish efficient financial management processes that provide improved customer service by modernizing the financial management systems.
Using standards espoused by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE), Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), VIP currently provides Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services for the Project. This included serving as a subject matter expert and reviewing offeror responses to the Request for Proposal (RFP) for software and integration services, providing written feedback on the technical feasibility of the offerors’ proposed solutions, and conformance of the solutions to the institution’s technical, administrative, and business requirements. VIP then reviewed the design and functionality of the software to ensure its reliability, maintainability, performance, conformance to requirements, and overall fitness for use and help ensure any issues or risks are identified, documented, and escalated. VIP verified that the solution contained an architecture that enabled the Department to maintain it in a cost-effective manner with minimal programming resources, and that the architecture supported implementation and integration of future projects. VIP is currently reviewing and assessing the software and integration vendor’s management and technical deliverables as well as participating in and observing software and integration contractor design and code walkthroughs with the Department’s technical staff. We are providing written feedback, comments, and recommendations as appropriate, and identifying relevant risks and issues. Finally, VIP will provide an assessment of the project’s readiness to move to production upon completion of user acceptance testing, an assessment of the maintainability of the software, and the Department’s readiness to assume responsibility for maintenance and operation of the software at the end of production acceptance.