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QSM Selected as Gartner 2015 "Cool Vendor" for IT Vendor Management Services

We are pleased to announce that QSM has been included in the list of 2015 "Cool Vendors" in the IT Vendor Management category by Gartner, Inc.

Each year, Gartner identifies a collection of companies in key technology areas and publishes a series of research reports that objectively highlight these companies from a customer perspective. The reports are meant to be succinct, filter through hype, hone in on vetted and proven innovations, and identify those vendors that are creating unique value in their market space. Many of the organizations that Gartner profiles are transforming the way businesses and government agencies leverage technology in innovative and useful ways. As the universe of outsourcing and third-party IT services continues to expand, Gartner singled out three front-runners in the burgeoning field of strategic vendor management.

 “It is very gratifying to be recognized by Gartner,” says Joseph A. Madden, QSM’s Vice President of Professional Services. “The 2015 Cool Vendors in Vendor Management is an independent and well-researched piece, and we consider inclusion to be testament to our thought leadership and almost 40 years of contributions to the discipline of using project metrics to make smarter IT investments.” Madden added, “the unique QSM edge is to harness historical project information and quantitative measurement to remove a lot of the politics, emotion and bias from vendor relationships: the data seldom lies and has no agenda.”

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Staffing a Successful Estimation Center of Excellence

When an organization wants to proactively manage their software activities from inception through development and sustainment, an enterprise software estimation or acquisition Center of Excellence (COE) is a great solution.  A significant portion of our professional services business at QSM is helping companies design and stand up enterprise COE operations. 

There are three main components to a successful COE implementation.  They are:

  1. Estimation Center of ExcellencePeople – Finding people with the right characteristics and developing their skills;
  2. Business Processes – developing the right business processes to support decision making; and
  3. Tools – Acquiring and configuring analytical tools to support the business processes.

Our clients often ask us to identify the best characteristics and skills for a person that they plan to staff into a COE.  We went back and looked at our most successful implementations, and here is what we found.

Ideal Enterprise COE Skill Set:

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Consulting Estimation

Webinar Replay - Avoiding Disaster in IT Outsourcing: A Quantitative Solution for Vendor Management

If you were unable to attend our recent webinar, "Avoiding Disaster in IT Outsourcing: A Quantitative Solution for Vendor Management," a replay is now available.

In the Forbes article “Now Every Company is a Software Company,” David Kirkpatrick argues “regardless of industry your company is now a software company, and pretending that it’s not spells serious peril.”

As organizations in nearly every industry sector transform into software companies, many executives, project managers, and procurement departments are being thrust into the role of managing IT vendors on software projects, yet they do not have the expertise to do so effectively. Typical pain points include:

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Webinars Consulting

Webinar - Avoiding Disaster in IT Outsourcing: A Quantitative Solution for Vendor Management

On Thursday, Jan 29th at 1:00 PM EST, QSM's Joseph Madden will present "Avoiding Disaster in IT Outsourcing: A Quantitative Solution for Vendor Management."

In the Forbes article “Now Every Company is a Software Company,” David Kirkpatrick argues “regardless of industry your company is now a software company, and pretending that it’s not spells serious peril.”

As organizations in nearly every industry sector transform into software companies, many executives, project managers, and procurement departments are being thrust into the role of managing IT vendors on software projects, yet they do not have the expertise to do so effectively. Typical pain points include:

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Webinars Consulting

7 Reasons Why Use of Parametric Software Estimation is a No-Brainer

Client organizations who are considering investing in SLIM® (a top-down, scope-based, parametric software estimation tool) often ask us for return on investment (ROI) case study examples which we gladly provide to help them with their business case. However, one question that has never been asked but I have always wondered is: does ROI accelerate with increased investment or does it follow the law of diminishing returns?

To answer this question, we looked at seven software estimation ROI case studies that included a variety of small, medium and large clients, from a single seat of SLIM all the way up to an enterprise Estimation Center of Excellence (ECoE).

Return on Investment ROI Using SLIM Estimation

On the above chart we plotted the investment in SLIM tools and consulting on the X axis vs. the return (actual cost savings) on the Y axis for each case study using a logarithmic scale. We then drew a trend line through the data points.

Following the trend line, small engagements (~$30K) had an average ROI of more than 13:1.  Medium engagements (~$300K) had an average ROI of 33:1.  Large ECoE engagements ($3M) had an average ROI of 67:1.  So not only is the ROI compelling, but it also accelerates with increased investment.

The actual cost savings (return) as reported by, or observed while working with, our clients include:

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Consulting Estimation

Abyi Yeshigeta Joins the QSM Consulting Team

QSM's best in class consulting team continues to grow with talented and dedicated individuals. We are pleased to welcome Abyi Yeshigeta as a Project Consultant supporting the Department of State Consular Affairs (CA) Consular Systems Technology (CST) engagement team on-site in Washington, DC. Abyi holds a BBA in Business Management from James Madison University and is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with DoD Defense Acquisition University training (DAU 101). Abyi brings five years of management consulting experience to include program and project management support, test and evaluation, and independent reviews/audits.

Experienced consultants like Abyi allow us to understand your business challenges quickly and identify effective solutions. Learn more about QSM consulting services today!

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Consulting QSM News

J. D. Ottenbreit and James Heires Join the QSM Consulting Team

QSM is pleased to welcome J. D. Ottenbreit and James Heires, two recognized industry experts, to our growing professional services team.

An accomplished business leader with 15+ years of technical and functional experience that spans the commercial, government and academic sectors, J. D. Ottenbreit specializes in client and large account management, project/program oversight and control, the full software development lifecycle, quality assurance, business process redesign, as well as strategic planning and execution. He has led teams both domestically and internationally as part of a former Big Four corporation, a Fortune 50 company, and as an advisor to various cabinet level government agencies and departments.   

Jeff will lead the QSM commercial consulting line of business where he and his team leverage our SLIM Suite of Tools and deep business insights to provide software modeling, project stewardship and best practice, metric and benchmark studies for application development and IT decision makers. 

Jeff is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and trained in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) methodology and Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) model. He holds a MBA in Management Information Systems from Sacred Heart University, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Management Strategic Leadership Workshop. 

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QSM Consulting Receives Four “Exceptional” Ratings from Army CPAR

We are pleased to announce that QSM has received four "Exceptional" ratings from the Army Contractor Performance Assessment Report (CPAR). A CPAR assessment is based on objective facts and supported by program and contract management data, such as cost performance reports, customer comments, quality reviews, and earned contract incentives. The Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) is the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Solution for collection of contractor Past Performance Information (PPI) as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

Having provided software estimation tools, training and consulting services to the Army since 2004, we very much appreciate their feedback. We try to hire the best people in the business and hold ourselves to a high standard of exceptional performance on all our contracts. These recent CPAR ratings clearly validate the quality of our staff.

Read the full press release.

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Consulting QSM News

QSM Awarded Contract with Army Cost Center

We are pleased to announce that the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Cost and Economics (ODASA-CE) has contracted QSM to provide a comprehensive cost methodology, which includes tools, consulting support, and on-site training. This contract is a continuation of a successful working relationship between QSM and the Army that began in 2004. With the new contract, QSM will be providing estimation assistance on major ACAT 1 programs (major acquisition programs).  QSM will also help establish a metrics database with software data from the Defense and Cost Research Center (DCARC) and from DASA-CE data collection efforts. This database will be used for program analysis and evaluation. 

Read the full press release here.

 

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Consulting QSM News SLIM Suite

Replay Now Available for QSM's High Performance Benchmark Consortium Webinar

Our recent webinar, "Introduction to the High Performance Benchmark Consortium," was a great success and we are already looking forward to planning our next presentation.  Joe Madden received a lot of insightful questions regarding our new consulting program.  We are aware that your time is valuable and scheduling can be a challenge, so we have recorded a replay, including Q&A, for anyone who was unable to attend the scheduled webinar.

 

To view the replay, click here.

 

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