Global Business Process Outsourcing Provider

SUMMARY

• The client was rapidly approaching a critical software application delivery date for the Federal Government. 
• Although the application itself was on target, the install program was not yet meeting the necessary requirements despite four months of effort by a third party contractor. 
• The client reached out to Revenera to evaluate the existing install program and create a time table for a complete solution. 
• Within 24 hours a Revenera Principal Consultant met with the client’s project management team to review the project. 
• Within 72 hours Revenera proposed and the client accepted a complete statement of work and the project began. 
• Revenera’s consulting teams executed the complete scope of work and successfully delivered the project on-time.

BACKGROUND

The client’s overall project was to develop a mission critical application for a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that would deliver timely and highly sensitive data regarding the treatment and care of American soldiers. The very large application included a substantial number of parameters which made the automated installer requirements for the application very complex. Despite the client’s four month investment in a 3rd party contractor to produce the installer, the job was less than 10% complete.

PROJECT CHALLENGES

Extremely tight and critical deadline:

The client’s application was on schedule and performing well functionally, but would still fail an imminent Federal Government qualification test without a required, fully functional installer. Failing the test would jeopardize ongoing federal funding for the client’s entire project.

Unable to re-use existing work:

The existing install was created over the course of four months by an outside consultant that was no longer on-site and was less than 10% complete. The work completed did not have a strong, logical foundation and was not supported by the contractor, which meant the client’s only hope for a long-term, serviceable solution was to enlist Revenera to rebuild the install from start to finish.

A large number of parameters:

Due to the enormous size of the application and the large number of configuration options, any installation would be prone to data entry errors without any fieldlevel data validation on the dialogs.

SCOPE

Given a firm 30-day deadline, Revenera was tasked with creating two InstallShield Windows Installer programs to deliver each variation of the client’s application. The existing details for each project were spelled out in a 580+ page installation document which detailed a complex hand install process. Each product included over 4700 files and required extensive system configuration.

THE REVENERA LOGISTICAL SOLUTION

From its team of InstallShield consultants, Revenera selected two principal consultants to head the effort. To save costs, both consultants worked remotely and leveraged web and phone conferencing to provide up-to-the-minute status to the client team. These consultants provided over 30+ years combined install program experience using InstallShield and Windows Installer.

Local unit testing: Each consultant provided significant local testing prior to making a testable build available to the client.

VPN access: With VPN access, each consultant was able to test directly on the client test VMware images.

Remote access to source control: With access to the client’s source control tree, images that were available for testing could be checked in. In addition, updated files were quickly made available through source control.

FINAL STATUS

With every effort critical to the client’s success, Revenera was able to successfully deliver the entire project in advance of the deadline. Not only did the software install exceed the testing requirements, it also led to a continued business relationship with the client.