Technology Modernization & Integration
Modernization support for operational systems, from assessment to sustainment
When an organization is replacing or upgrading an operational system, Wallis Consulting starts with a written assessment of the options and a roadmap for the work. From there we support the program through integration, validation and user-acceptance testing, and sustainment after go-live.
Where modernization programs run into trouble
Stage 1
Integration
A new system has to exchange data with the systems already in service, and those interfaces are often the least documented part of the plan. Mismatched formats and unclear ownership then surface when the pieces are first connected. We record each interface with the teams on both ends and track integration issues through to resolution before formal validation starts.
Stage 2
Validation and user acceptance
Test plans usually trace every requirement to a test case; fewer check whether the people who will run the system can do their daily work with it. When user-acceptance testing is squeezed into the last weeks before go-live, the defects it finds often ship with the release.
Our validation and acceptance test plans are written around those daily tasks. For a case-management system, one test might follow a single case from intake to closure through every screen a caseworker would use. We support the tests while they run and through the pre-deployment checks.
Stage 3
Sustainment
We set the configuration baseline at deployment, while the system still matches what was tested, and write the change procedure and technical documentation the support organization will maintain. Without those records, the configuration drifts once the delivery team moves on, and each later change depends on whoever remembers how the system was set up.
What you receive
An engagement can cover one of these or all four, depending on where the program stands.
- Modernization assessment and roadmap
- A written review of the current system and the options for replacing or upgrading it, with a roadmap that puts the work in sequence and shows which steps depend on others. The assessment is vendor-agnostic and compares approaches against the program’s requirements without assuming a product.
- Integration plan and interface records
- A plan for connecting the new system to the ones around it, and a record for each interface of the data it carries and the team responsible for each end. Open integration issues are logged against that record until they are resolved.
- Validation and user-acceptance test plans
- Test plans built from the tasks users perform with the system, and support while the tests are run and during the pre-deployment checks. Results are recorded so every open defect is either fixed or formally accepted before release.
- Sustainment and configuration-management documentation
- A configuration baseline for the system as deployed, a procedure for approving and recording changes to it, and the technical documentation the support organization needs to operate and maintain it after go-live.
Background
In prior industry roles on public-sector programs, Austin’s work included software validation and user-acceptance testing, and integration and sustainment support.
Founder’s prior-role experience; not engagements of Wallis Consulting LLC.
Send a short description of the system and the stage it has reached, and we will suggest which of these deliverables fit.