Contract Resources Group’s Post

Want to boost your software team's efficiency and ROI? 💡 Alejandro Pena explains how Contract Testing can help your business save time ⏰, cut costs 💰, and ensure peace of mind 🧘♂️. Discover the long-term benefits and see why it’s a game-changer for organizations of all sizes. Ready to learn more? 👉 Check out the full article here! https://lnkd.in/eCNVePfr

Great piece on the 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 for Contract Testing and how solutions like #PactFlow can quickly payoff when compared to the cost incurred by delays in software delivery, system downtime, and deployment failures. Not to mention the friction caused by dependency bottlenecks!

🚀 New blog post alert: How to decode IT Complexity!🚀 In our latest article, we explore how to conquer common IT challenges with effective documentation. 🖥️✨ Get your blueprint for success and take your IT infrastructure to the next level! 👉 Read now: https://okt.to/B2zfD5 #IT #Documentation #ITManagement #Efficiency #BestPractices

Clarke’s Law Applies to all technology projects 3 prime principles 1.NEVER ask the business for UPFRONT requirements! Yes this is controversial, but you are making a huge assumption that the business either understands what they want or the underlying solution that might support what they want. Instead, ask what is the business problem, why is it a problem? Then, what are the expected benefits/outcomes/objectives by resolving this problem? The next step is to perform a “current state”analysis or assessment and determine what the desired state will be All of this without a single upfront requirement. Next you work on “design” and definitions. Work on what acceptance looks like and build a roadmap to deliver first and minimum viable solution, and the a plan to enhance/optimize that solution. You never have perfect first time! This is foundational as a principle. It prevents businesses solutioning and it gives a better opportunity to provide a solution that benefits the many over the few. It also presents an opportunity to scan your current landscape for potential candidates that may provide an acceptable solution 2. Never modify a product or service without trying it “out of the box” first. Pilot everything, 9 times out of 10 business problems are caused by not following industry recognized good practices and it is process that really needs review. 99% of solutions are built around common practices and approaches, and for the most part comply with regulations out of the box. If you are implementing new solutions, this is the right time to address issues with business processes and bad habits. 3. Fix broken processes BEFORE committing to technology. Remember, technology does not fix broken processes. You need to resolve and optimize those issues first. Understand what is broken and the why. Ultimately, if you find yourself heavily configuring or customizing COTS, SAAS or PAAS solutions its very likely your are trying to fit a solution to your processes and not adjusting your processes to fit the solutions. #business #management #projects #projectmanagement #delivery #cio #cto #quality #approach #method

Learn about how to make your life easier and qualify your firm for ever larger bonds.

The Crucial Role of Software in Defining Business Operations In the ever-evolving landscape of Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), certain fundamental principles have stood the test of time. While we continually adopt new tools and technologies, our core objective remains consistent. Alongside these tools, regulatory frameworks like Sarbanes-Oxley have played a pivotal role in formalizing our practices. However, amidst the technical intricacies and compliance requirements, there exists a concept that often goes unnoticed: our software profoundly shapes what our business does and how it does it. Policies and procedures are essential for any organization. They serve as roadmaps, guiding us toward desired outcomes. Yet, we must recognize that these documents may not always mirror our actual practices. The true essence of our operations lies not in abstract concepts but in the electronic processes and data flows that underpin our daily work. As we navigate SDLC, let’s keep this fundamental truth in mind: our applications provide an explicit blueprint of our business operations. Whether we’re designing, developing, testing, ensuring compliance, or maintaining systems, our software encapsulates the essence of how we function. So, next time you engage in software-related activities, consider the profound impact it has on defining the very fabric of your organization. It’s not just lines of code; it’s the heartbeat of your business.

A federal agency was dependent upon the use of 100+ disparate legacy procurement systems that were disconnected, inconsistent, and non-compliant, complicating the contract writing and management processes for a community of over 10,000 users.  Discover how our Guidehouse experts helped this agency increase efficiency, reduce acquisition time, and improve data quality through implementing low-code and Agile best practices: https://lnkd.in/ep7Kkrpt  Guidehouse Defense and Security | #LowCode #Agile #DataManagement #DevSecOps

Moving toward Agile Development in Life Sciences Common Life Sciences Industry challenges Agile software development is a tightly controlled, time bound, process. Used as intended, it offers a very comprehensive solution to delivering “packages” of software into production that are proven to be Fit for Purpose.   One challenge faced by many regulated companies is to change the business mindset to a “discovery” which is the foundation of Agile, rather than the more traditional “fixed” approach of a regimented waterfall methodology. The temptation, which inevitably results in failure, is to try to adapt or even implement the Agile process around an existing SDLC/SLC, rather than developing the strengths of Agile i.e. small cross functional teams using tools (artifacts) over documents, producing packages of software that are compliant, tested and fit for purpose.  Navigating the industry challenges To use Agile software development in any regulated environment, there first needs to be an understanding of how the process works and why it is a good fit for developing software (it does not fit all deployments) to the required standards, as well as producing quality solutions to meet the needs of the business. This should include close collaboration with the Quality team to set the boundaries for oversight, alongside embedding validation SME’s into the scrum team. Getting the best out of Agile will also requires the use of toolsets to manage the activities (opposed to in a Waterfall approach using the SDLC documentation and templates) such that documentation is greatly reduced, whilst traceability, change control and audit trails are continued to be managed closely. How Integrity have helped  Integrity, using the principles outlined above, have helped and number of our clients successfully pilot Agile to deliver a GxP solution and continued to refine their processes to roll-out Agile for relevant GxP projects.  For the pilot, Integrity’s validation engineers collaborate closely with the Product Owner and internal team developing the model, to create a cross functional team trained not just in “how” but also “why” the model was the right solution. They followed the Scrum Framework, and the team kept in close contact with Quality throughout which delivered a complete set of records  and allowed the project to achieve its goals of delivering a quality product, on time, that met the needs of the user community, was fit for the intended purpose and was demonstrably under full control. Importantly, the team is also aligned with DevOps practices to manage changes and new releases to the same quality standards. If you are thinking about adopting Agile, are midway in and a little stuck or not sure where to start with you existing SOP’s/SDLC then let us help you. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or email me direct [email protected]  if you would like a chat on same. 

How do you measure and improve the software delivery process ? Organizations can effectively implement DORA (Devops Research and Assessment) metrics to measure , improve their software delivery process and achieve greater speed, stability, and reliability in their products and services. ✔️ Deployment Frequency: This metric measures how often code changes are deployed to production. For example, if a team deploys new code to production twice a week, their deployment frequency would be two deployments per week. ✔️ Lead Time for Changes: This metric tracks the time it takes for a code change to go from development to production. It starts when the code change is committed and ends when it is successfully deployed. For instance, if it takes three days for a code change to go live after it's been committed, the lead time for changes is three days. ✔️ Mean Time to Recover (MTTR): MTTR measures the average time it takes to restore service after a failure or incident occurs. For example, if a service goes down and it takes two hours to bring it back up, the MTTR for that incident is two hours. How fast you can fix the production bug and release it in production. ✔️ Change Failure Rate: This metric calculates the percentage of changes that result in a failure or require remediation. For instance, if out of 100 code changes, 5 of them caused incidents or required rollback, the change failure rate would be 5%.

🚀 New blog post alert: How to decode IT Complexity!🚀 In our latest article, we explore how to conquer common IT challenges with effective documentation. 🖥️✨ Get your blueprint for success and take your IT infrastructure to the next level! 👉 Read now: https://okt.to/ktZfUV #IT #Documentation #ITManagement #Efficiency #BestPractices