Professional Services
Business Process Management
Your customer is your first priority. We understand that. Delivering products and services more efficiently is what differentiates you from your competition. But your processes are not always running as smoothly as they could be. Often, measurable gains in efficiency can be realized through leveraging technology to improve those processes – but where do you begin?
That’s where AGCS steps in. With a proven BPM methodology and several years of tested and proven Business Process Automation experience, AGCS improves the speed at which you do business - adding value by understanding key business drivers and enabling you to more efficiently serve your customers.
AGCS's Business Process Management methodology (AG-BPM) is a tested and proven approach that adapts itself easily to a wide range of industries and processes. AGCS’s wealth of business experience means better results, quicker. As organizations like yours strive to reach their goals and objectives, AG-BPM will work in concert with your business to continuously improve processes and help you maintain your competitive edge. It’s what we like to call ‘Adaptive Optimization.'
Consulting Services
AGCS has years of working with companies of all sizes from small/medium size companies to $Billion Dollars firms and we understand that from time to time some organizations, no matter their size, need someone to assist them in understanding their own internal needs - that is why we are here - to help you when you need us.
AGCS offers several levels of support programs to fit most any budget and our rates are competitive and fair. AGCS belief is that we build a long term relationship one at a time with all our clients and it is not unusual for AGCS to have relationships with some of our clients since 1985.
Rest assured that AGCS can be you Trusted Advisor.
Project Management
Introduction to AGCS's TARGIT Methodology
TARGIT is the methodology that AGCS uses to define, design, build, deliver, and manage solutions that consistently meet or exceed customer expectations. TARGIT is comprised of five (5) Phases. These Phases are Envision, Design, Develop, Deploy and Manage. As you will see, these Phases build upon each other, with the preceding step forming the foundation for its successor. Each of the Phases has supporting documentation to ensure a consistent record is kept of the project. As you will see in each of the Phases as outlined below, there are both mandatory and optional steps, as well as templates for most of the documents in each Phase as well as sample documents.
It is very important to note that although the methodology is to designed to provide a structure within which to plan and progress an application development project, it is also meant to provide flexibility to:
- Allow multiple points of entry
- Account for the inherent differences in project type, size, and complexity
- Encourage innovation that improves the process to benefit AGCS clients, consultants, and AGCS as a company.
AGCS has adopted the TARGIT methodology so that we can provide better and more consistent solutions for our clients.
Envision
The Envision Phase of TARGIT is performed as the beginning of the project’s lifecycle. Instead of immediately commencing coding or prototyping activities, the Envision Phase prescribes a process purposed to establish a clear baseline representing the project’s objectives.
The bulk of the work in the Envision Phase involves building a common understanding of the solution to be constructed. To do this, we must have a common understanding of the client’s organization. We must ensure a clear vision for the solution, and definition of the specific goals and critical success factors upon which the solution can be evaluated when completed. These technical details are addressed fully in the Design Phase of the TARGIT methodology.
Deliverables for the Envisioning Phase are:
- Vision Document
- Risk Assessment
- Project Plan
- Special note: The project plan may be in the form of one or more documents that define the project tasks, resource requirements, resource assignments, project calendar, and project cost.
The Vision Document may contain the following information:
- Business Challenges (Problem Statement)
- Vision Statement – Concise statement of project goals.
- Solution Concept – Defines high-level definition of the solution and scope
- User Profiles – Categorizes the business users that will be directly or indirectly affected by the delivery of the project.
- Business Goals – Documents project objectives, expected benefits, and relative priorities from a business perspective. These objectives can later be used to define project success criteria.
- Design Goals – Defines key design concepts and constraints that the solution must follow.
- Project Team – Explains team roles and identifies personnel targeted to fill these roles for the life of the project.
- Communications Plan – Defines method and schedule for the following on-going activities:
- Status Reporting
- Problem Tracking and Resolution
- Change Control Process
- Risk Assessment
- Project Reviews (which metrics to monitor, frequency basis)
The Envision Phase culminates at the Vision Approved Milestone where the business stakeholders approve the vision of the project. This may be as simple as the requesting user accepting the vision verbally, or as formal as executives or the board voting to approve the project vision. At any time during the project, the Vision statement can be reiterated which would result in the Vision Approved and Project Plan Approved Milestones, as well as the Risk Assessment document, being revisited again. This is the flexibility that is inherent within this methodology.
The Risk Assessment is the first of a number of living documents that will be kept throughout the life of the project. As the project progresses, the source of project risks may change to reflect the varying focus of the current point in the project lifecycle. The following shows the major sources of project risk:
Design
The Design Phase of TARGIT is the point in the process where technical details are flushed out and documented. As with the Envision Phase, the exact method used to flush out these details will be dependent upon the project type, size and complexity. The goal of the Design Phase is the same for all projects, and that is to detail exactly how the Envisioned solution will function upon delivery.
The result of the Design Phase is extensive documentation of the solution design. This documentation may include detailed process flows, functional specifications, technical architecture, data models and user interface design documents.
Deliverables for the Design Phase are:
- Functional Specification
- Technical Specification
- Data Model Specifications
- Test Plan
- Deployment Strategy
- Updated Project Plan
The product of a successful Design Phase is a comprehensive project plan that captures and defines all the project activities and expresses them in terms of associated objectives, phases, deadlines, milestones, critical paths, deliverables, risks, budget, resources, and quality control. The Project Plan and other design documents as a whole become the statement of work for the Develop Phase of TARGIT.
Develop
The Develop Phase of TARGIT is generally the most demanding Phase on the project resources. The “Develop” Phase name may be misleading, because it doesn’t indicate additional sub processes such as testing and documentation, which are major elements of the Phase.
In the Develop Phase AGCS employs standard practices for team organization and management, change control, source code control, system testing, quality assurance, and technical and user documentation generation.
Deliverables for the Development Phase are:
- The executable software, source code, data models, etc. in their first release version operational capacity.
- User Manuals – Guides the end-user through how to use the system.
- Test results – Documents the results of testing.
- System Manuals – Guides the system administrator through how to setup, configure and maintain the system.
- Project Plan – Documents detail tasks and task assignments for the Deploy Phase. May also document high-level or detail tasks and task assignments for the Manage Phase.
When all development work is completed, and acceptance testing is nearing completion, a Project Plan for the Deploy Phase is generated. When testing is completed, the project is ready to move to Deploy.
Deploy
AGCS recognizes that a great solution is worthless without a successful implementation. The Deploy Phase in TARGIT includes processes that ensure an orderly and successful implementation of the constructed solution.
Knowledge Transfer represents the greatest portion of the Deploy Phase for most solutions. End user training, user documentation, systems management policies and procedures, and technical documentation all are addressed in the TARGIT Deploy Phase.
Deliverables for the Development Phase are:
- System Administrator Training -
- User Training -
The production environment is configured and certified to meet specifications determined in the Design and Develop Phases, and the solution is deployed.
Manage
The Manage Phase in TARGIT addresses the need to effect the systems management policies and procedures that are required to operate the solution with the desired levels of availability and performance.
This may involve activities such as performance tuning, solutions extensions, on-going training, or the implementation of specialized tools that can provide fault-tolerance, fast-recovery, or proactive management, alerting, and reporting. Finally, AGCS offers subscription services in which AGCS would be responsible for being on-call or managing the solution on our client’s behalf.
Summary
TARGIT provides a consistent method in which all AGCS projects are addressed. It incorporates AGCS’s best practices and provides the opportunity to continually improve these practices as they are applied to a range of projects.
TARGIT enables AGCS and client staff to achieve a mutual understanding of roles, responsibilities, goals, and the criteria with which to measure success or failure. As projects move through their life cycle TARGIT ensures that changes to these expectations are uncovered and reviewed with any requisite changes to the project plan being mutually approved and documented.
Technology Assessment
AGCS's many, many experiences lends itself to be a litmus to advancing technologies and train of thought. We now live in a time where email replies and business responses are measured in minutes, if not seconds. The days of replying to a clients response - tomorrow or another day is not good enough anymore - your clients expect more and they want it faster.
AGCS can assist you in helping you understand where you are "Technologywise" now and where you should be looking into the future, based on future growth projects or just where the market is going.
It is okay to be on the Leading Edge of Technology, BUT NOT ON THE BLEEDING EDGE - you can get hurt. Do we have all the answers on where technology is going - No, but we have a pretty good idea of what you should be looking out for.
Call us - we can help you understand what is happening and what you should be looking out for.
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GIS allows you to view, interpret, question, and visualize data in ways that help reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, charts, and reports.
AG Consulting Services provides GIS (Geographic Information Systems) services teams that specialize in the development of GIS solutions and IT services that transform "location", complex data and business processes into enterprise knowledge.
Our services focus on making information readily available through a variety of channels such as the desktop, the Web, and through wireless applications. In conjunction with our professionally managed IT services team, we are able to provide our customers with a true "Enterprise" solution complete with IT Infrastructure and Data management support. We specialize in the design, development, and deployment of complete GIS solutions from front end to back office.
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