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SeaPort-e
Quality Assurance
While Agilex is a relatively young company, our senior management team offers decades of agency and vendor experience in managing major government programs. We have also made significant investments in our infrastructure and human capital to provide Agilex with the capabilities of a much larger firm. For example, we have standardized on Deltek Costpoint and Deltek Time and Expense for program accounting.
We also utilize a formal program management methodology, which is based on the Project Management Institute’s PMBOK® guides, to meet the contract and financial management requirements of every task order. Key steps in this process are as follows:
- Initiate - Agilex conducts an internal kick-off meeting to initiate each project or task order. We review all of the components of a project during this meeting, including the budget, timeline, responsibilities, deliverables, and tasks for the organization, as well as our tailored project plan. This meeting helps to set clear expectations and provides an opportunity to highlight potential challenges.
- Plan - The purpose of the planning phase is to define the contractual scope, deliverables, project schedule, resources, finances, and quality metrics for the project. Included in this process is the development of a Quality Assurance Plan, which is described below.
- Execute - The Task Order Manager (TOM) executes the plan, which includes securing, training, or procuring resources based on the individual needs and required skills of the project.
- Control - The TOM manages the project to ensure that it achieves its goals. Controlling includes project performance, costs, and change control, including status reports, progress reports, and additional reports as required. On a periodic basis, Agilex performs an internal audit of its task orders. Audits consist of a scheduled progress review, milestones, deliverables, costs, risks, and project artifacts. A report is provided to the TOM with documentation needed to perform Quality Assurance (QA).
- Closeout - This phase of our management approach ensures that each project is properly closed out in accordance with contract requirements. Closeout activities include final project acceptance(s), contractual actions/administrative actions such as debriefings, lessons learned sessions, and returning customer-provided information and properly packaging project artifacts.
This methodology is designed to ensure that both our customer-facing and back-office staff work collaboratively to execute the project within budget, achieve project deadlines and meet or exceed customer expectations. Due to the importance of a sound project management methodology, we have established policies and training for each project manager to utilize on every project.
We also take a proactive approach to identifying and resolving potential problems before they can impact performance. This approach is embodied in the Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) that we develop for every project as part of our contract management methodology. The QAP will address performance standards required by the task order and will define how performance will be measured against the standards. It will also define surveillance schedules and methods. A typical QAP will include the following:
- The performance metrics or service levels required by the task order
- An initial assessment (based on historical data) of threats to quality and service levels
- Identification of key quality targets and the measures by which they will be assessed
- A crosswalk with the task order Risk Management Plan to identify the quality measures that may be indicative of an identified risk factor
- Identify the individual(s) responsible for task order QA
- A Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan, which outlines the times and frequencies for performing quality audits; procedures for recording results; and procedures for reporting to the Navy, project stakeholders, and Agilex management
- Procedures for a resolution process addressing corrective action requests
- Procedures for gate reviews associated with information systems and other development projects, including identification of required personnel and roles in each required review.
This approach ensures maximum transparency and timely responses to defects, which result in high-quality deliverables for the Navy and task order stakeholders.
As noted above, an important component of our management approach to problem resolution is to prevent problems from occurring in the first place by employing risk management. Detailed task planning and monitoring, management reviews, and close coordination with the customer facilitate early problem identification. When risks and problems are identified early, efficient and responsive solutions can usually be found. Our entire organization, from the Program Director (PD) and TOM to individual team members, will maintain a close working relationship with Seaport-e customers and project stakeholders to discuss status and issues and to offer risk mitigation techniques and alternative solutions.
However, in the event a problem occurs, we work to resolve the problem immediately. When a problem cannot be immediately resolved, we will assess the impact of the problem and, in cooperation with the Government’s task order management personnel, we will prioritize the problem and assign technical resources to develop a resolution. TOMs are responsible for overseeing the resolution of problems in their individual tasks. Exceptionally urgent problems may become the responsibility of the PD. High priority problems will receive immediate attention, and Government management personnel will be kept informed of progress toward a resolution.
Regular status meetings provide the PD, TOM and other key staff members with a forum for discussion of significant events, risks, or problems and increase the visibility of any risk or problem. Once a risk or problem has been identified and resolved, the results are incorporated into revised plans, schedules, and policies and procedures, as necessary, to determine whether any further adverse impact on the effort exists. We will track all reported problems and monitor their status until fully resolved, thus ensuring that all problems are satisfactorily addressed.
Our software development methodology utilizes Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) compliant processes as well as agile methodologies, such as SCRUM and Test-Driven Development (TDD), to deliver the highest levels of consistency, quality and performance. A unique feature of this approach is the use of continuous integration and testing to assess software quality on a daily basis. Coupled with the use of short duration sprints and very transparent reporting, this process mitigates risk by maintaining close collaboration amongst all stakeholders while continually assessing performance.
This approach places a great deal of emphasis on requirements engineering and other “up front” activities as a risk mitigation technique. We initiate each software development project by acquiring requirements through joint application development (JAD) sessions with the customer’s project manager and other stakeholders. Subsequently, we expand, group, and prioritize potential features and feature sets. Once required features are sufficiently defined, we perform preliminary cost and schedule estimates to determine the rough level of effort required to meet the requirements. Because we use an iterative process with frequent checks against requirements, our process is extremely responsive to the mission goals of our customers, since each sprint gives us an opportunity to meet with our stakeholders and, if necessary, change course to meet evolving needs.
Finally, we invest continually in our human capital to maintain a world-class workforce with attrition rates well-below industry norms. In addition, our fully-staffed HR department maintains an extensive database of qualified candidates to allow us to rapidly meet additional requirements.