Our How
What kind of clients do we look for?
How you do things matter, it reflects your Culture
Ultimately, we are looking for companies that are thought leaders in their space and want more out of their operations. We are a growth-mindset run company with a culture for eliminating waste that is always open minded on optimizing design, technology and business operations.
As an innovation-oriented systems group, we engage with groups that are like minded and embody the same energy, spirit and culture. Our clients are looking for products that are desired by people, technology that is viable, and operational business models that are sustainable. We embody the spirit of Design Thinking.
We are looking for entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and investors that want to explore disruptive technologies and improved process that will take their business to new levels.
We get asked how we accomplish what we do quite often.
The best way to answer the question is to relate all of the following categories:
Application Modernization
We help guide you at every step.
Today, all companies are technology companies. If your business is relying on old technology, then your business will remain stuck in the past. It’s not about if you should modernize, but when, and how. Cloud-based technologies offer enormous benefits for companies of all sizes including reduced costs of infrastructure, better customer experiences, and improved business processes.
We understand that transforming your business into a technology-driven business is a herculean task, and one that introduces risks. It is important to know the why you are embarking on a digital transformation journey and do it for the right reasons. And you need a sound strategy and execution plan.
At Alliance Systems, we understand the challenges and opportunities that come with an application modernization initiative and help guide you at every step, from validation of the plan and strategy, through technology selection and implementation. Schedule a call with our team today.
Documentation
The #1 cause of failed projects is poor communication and documentation, especially when it comes to expectations.
One of our critical success factors is ensuring that our documentation is understood by all parties. Documentation that is too technical can alienate people from different disciplines. That is why it is so important to realize that core documentation should be well organized, and readily digested by anyone on the team.
Through our experience, too much documentation of the wrong kind can be a waste of time and confuse teams more than help them. Here is how Alliance Systems organizes documentation:
Pre-Development documentation places emphasis on macro level information such as software architecture and may include functional specifications, personas, user stories and entity relationship diagrams, workflows and data lists.
During Development documentation is more critical for the development teams in charge. Documentation at this stage is typically curated from good programming practices and facilitated through the use of frameworks, choice of programming language and meta details in the version control/code repositories.
Post-Development Documentation is mostly developed in or to support the team responsible for maintenance or to educate end-users on how to use the software. Documentation of basic procedures and highlighting the core workflows can go a long way. The need for extensive end-user documentation is somewhat a diminishing need as software becomes increasingly intuitive due to an emphasis on UX (User Experience).
Project Management
SAFe Principles & Rituals
Selecting a team that has great Project Management skills and process is critical for the success of your project. While there are various methodologies suited for agile software teams, we follow principles of SAFe across all our projects.
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprise) is an industry proven, value-focused method for developing systems through an agile process. It allows stakeholders to answer tough questions related to budget, planning, and understanding the value of cross functional disciplines working together to deliver products/services.
A basic way to understand SAFe is to combine waterfall and agile approaches together. SAFe allows for planning of deliverables in 90-day window periods. Teams limit their operational planning based on quarters. This limits the planning and waste effects of agile within any given period. Focused planning within 90-day windows is optimized while taking advantage of iterative feedback and meaningful metrics.
Organizing all communications around basic documentation that everyone can understand and keeping track of operational costs allow business teams, design teams, and development teams to work as a cross-functional unit. This wholistic approach provides an elevated opportunity to successfully launch product.
We also combine SAFe principles with Design Thinking, our innovation framework through rituals that are proven to bring teams together such as:
Discovery and Audit Process
What is a Discovery Phase and why is it critical for any initiative?
A ‘Discovery Phase’ can be described as intensive research and planning period at the onset of an initiative. It is commonly managed by cross disciplines within Business Analysts, UX Designers, Technical Architects and Stakeholders. The basic rule is understanding the current state and closing the gap to get to the desired state. Meaning, what does our team need to know and understand to get the ‘product’ to the desired state.
The cross-functional team of experts will collaborate and produce documentation to capture all the key findings and begin breaking down tasks into an organized manner. Within SAFe and Agile, this break down is described as Epics, Stories, and Spikes.
The ultimate goal for any Discovery phase is to reduce uncertainty, manage risk, and eliminate assumptions all into a shared vision. This shared vision is then segmented into agile sprints that are completed within a 90-day period.
Discovery Phases can range in size and cost depending on the complexity and size of initiative. Alliance Systems works with clients of all sizes from small to enterprise.
