Project Management

InfoAdvisors has over 20 years of project-related work on large, multi-project programs in IT and Engineering.  We can manage projects of any size, of any duration, in any location.  We have helped numerous organizations successfully meet their project goals.  We have extensive experience in producing and mentoring organizations in producing valued:

• Project Charters
• Project Plans
• Lessons Learned Deliverables
• Project Methods / Processes
• Painless Walk through / Review Plans
• Status Reports
• Resource Plans
• Job Postings
• Budgets

Data Management

We can help you develop and implement practical, usable, and fast development processes that properly balance the needs of the business with those of the IT organization.  These services are hands-on, team-based work, not just consulting and advising, using a variety of data modeling, process modeling, and enterprise architecture tools and methods.

A sampling of work we've completed for our clients:

• Naming Standards
• Process Standards
• Development Processes
• Enterprise Data Models and Patterns
• Conceptual Data Models
• Logical Data Models
• Physical Data Models
• XSDs / Schemas
• Data Model Walk through / Reviews
• Review Processes
• Training for Modelers
• Training for Non-modelers
• Tool Training
• Tool Evaluations
• Data Migration
• Data Validation
• Data Mappings

Data and Process Management Planning & Performance Improvement

We can help your new or existing data or process management group be more successful at meeting the needs of your customers and end users.  With our 20+ years of experience establishing practical and valued data management services, we can help you choose the right processes and tools for your organization's culture and operating environment.

We have helped our clients plan for and implement data & process management practices that:

• Encourage effective use and reuse of models
• Provide more formalized processes for the development and implementation of your models
• Provide models of the right quality, the right level of detail, at the right time.
• Establish standards that work for both the data & process groups as well as the teams they support
• Provide views of models that best meet the needs of development and DBA groups depending on project status and pace
• Establish data and process management as a valued aspect of the organization's overall IT approach
• Balance the needs of business users, DBAs, Developers, QA groups and Project Managers
• Encourage support from business users to have models as a key component of every IT project
• Increase business confidence in data and process management efforts
• Allow groups to move up to the next level of data and process management while still meeting the needs of existing projects.

Our approach to establishing or improving data & process management services takes into account an organization's development maturity, existing collaboration levels, tools and infrastructure availability, and overall rate-of-change acceptance.  We aren't offering a canned methodology or tool set; we provide an individualized, tailored plan of action for moving increasing organizational performance in an on-going basis.

We can continue our planning efforts by mentoring and consulting enterprise architecture and developments groups, providing feedback and improvements in an on-going basis.

Data Management Governance and Process Improvement Assessments

We can provide data management groups with assessments of the the reliability, sustainability, and quality of their own data management offerings.  These assessments are not audits; they comprise third party views of your current  operating environment and recommendations for improving the quality of your deliverables.

These assessments focus the specific environment and goals of in your situation.

Assessments look at the following areas:

• Organizational Structure
  • Do you have the right mix of skill sets and resources to meet your goals, in your environment?
  • Are they located in the right places?
  • What performance improvements can be made?
  • Can increased mentoring improve performance of your group?
• Meta Data and Models
  • Are your models delivering value to your teams?
  • Are you delivering the right models to the right people in the right format at the right time?
  • Are your models meeting acceptable quality standards?
  • Are your current standards meeting the needs of your group and your teams?
  • Can the use of patterns, industry standards, or other reusable assets increase your performance?
• Tools and Technical Infrastructure
  
  • How can your current technical environment further support your goals, in your environment?
  • Are your meta data assets properly protected and secured?
  • How can you leverage tools and infrastructure to increase your groups performance?
• Collaboration
  • Are your models and meta data properly positioned as valuable components of your organization's overall IT process and goals?
  • How can you increase collaboration with developers, DBAs, Project Managers and Business Users?
  • Is your data management group doing the right things to encourage adoption of the models and meta data they manage?

Data Model and Process Model Quality Reviews

Our model quality reviews focus on increasing all the -abilities of your models:  reliability, usability, re-usability, portability, etc.

While our reviews will first look to using your own well-honed, accepted data and process modeling standards, we will also comment on the timeliness and quality of your standards, comparing them against external standards and practices.

We can review all your models, a subset, or even just one model. Reviews can be performed on completed models with a focus on improving the quality of future models, or at project milestones to ensure that projects stay on track throughout your project.

We can review models offered by third parties (vendors and standards bodies), models developed in-house, and models developed by your business partners and vendors (such as outsourcers or contract staff.

We also provide consulting services for implementation of the National Retail Federation's Association of Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) data models and schemas.  See our ARTS page for more information.

If you'd like to know more about all our services, please contact us.  We'd be happy to talk with you about your needs.