QSM News
QSM Consulting Receives Four “Exceptional” Ratings from Army CPAR
We are pleased to announce that QSM has received four "Exceptional" ratings from the Army Contractor Performance Assessment Report (CPAR). A CPAR assessment is based on objective facts and supported by program and contract management data, such as cost performance reports, customer comments, quality reviews, and earned contract incentives. The Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) is the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Solution for collection of contractor Past Performance Information (PPI) as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
QSM Presentation at Better Software West 2012
Paul Below will be presenting "Optimal Project Performance: Factors that Influence Project Duration" at the 2012 Better Software West Conference on Thursday, June 14 at 4:00 PM.
QSM Awarded Contract with Army Cost Center
We are pleased to announce that the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Cost and Economics (ODASA-CE) has contracted QSM to provide a comprehensive cost methodology, which includes tools, consulting support, and on-site training. This contract is a continuation of a successful working relationship between QSM and the Army that began in 2004. With the new contract, QSM will be providing estimation assistance on major ACAT 1 programs (major acquisition programs). QSM will also help establish a metrics database with software data from the Defense and Cost Research Center (DCARC) and from DASA-CE data collection efforts. This database will be used for program analysis and evaluation.
Read the full press release here.
QSM Presentation at Gartner Symposium: Best Practices for Establishing a Successful Estimation Process
On October 17 at 7:30 PM, Keith Ciocco will be presenting "Best Practices for Establishing a Successful Estimation Process" at the Gartner Symposium ITXpo. This presentation covers best practices for project estimation. Keith will summarize some key things to remember when setting up a successful estimation process at the organizational and project level, including the importance of calibrating to historical data and measuring size and productivity.
QSM will also be exhibiting at this conference. Stop by booth ET3 and enter to win an iPad 2!
New SLIM Product Tour
We are pleased to announce that QSM has a new SLIM product tour. This online demo shows you how to quickly and easily use SLIM-Estimate to create an estimate validated by industry benchmarks or your own project history. The demo then demonstrates how to negotiate trade-offs and highlights some of the new features of the tool. The product tour also includes SLIM-MasterPlan, which allows you to roll-up multiple estimates and is ideal for iterative and non-iterative developments.
View the new SLIM demo here and tell us what you think!
New Faces in QSM Support
The next time you call or email QSM for support, you may notice a few unfamiliar names or voices. That's because QSM Research and Support is growing!
The first addition to our team is Katie Costantini. Katie joined QSM as a temporary summer intern in May of this year. We were so delighted by the quality of her work that we recently offered her a full time position at QSM as a Technical Support and Documentation specialist.
New Additions to the QSM Team
QSM is pleased to announce we have been rapidly growing this year. To accommodate our new consulting services, training offerings, SLIM tool releases, and research projects, QSM has welcomed a wide range of talented and experienced team members. Here's a brief overview of our recent additions:
SLIM-Control support for Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management V3 is validated as ‘Ready for IBM Rational’ software.
MCLEAN, Virginia – QSM, Inc., a leader in software and systems development estimation, planning, and project management, today announced that they have upgraded their integration of SLIM-Control to support IBM Rational Team Concert V3.0.1.
Rational Team Concert provides a unique team collaborative development environment enabling productivity and quality in modern software development. Project data in Team Concert, such as Work Items (stories planned; stories completed) and Quality (defects found; defects corrected) can be retrieved by QSM’s SLIM-Control to perform its project analysis:
SLIM 8.0f1: Estimating Beyond Software
In recent years, we have seen our client base become increasingly diverse, expressing the need for our estimation, tracking, and benchmarking tools for design processes outside of just software. While clients have customized SLIM to other design disciplines in the past, our goal with SLIM 8.0 was to increase configurability within our tools so our users can model any type of system quickly and easily. Now users can forecast and benchmark Agile, infrastructure, offshore/multi-shore, ERP/package implementation projects, and more. In addition to updated trendlines from 10,000 completed software and systems projects, SLIM comes pre-packaged with trend groups, such as Agile, ERP, Financial, Web, and Government.
Read the full press release with detailed product upgrades here.
QSM at SEPG
If you're planning on attending this year's SEPG conference, don't miss QSM Consultant, researcher, and all around blogger extraordinaire Paul Below! On Wednesday, March 23rd, Paul will demonstrate how organizations can Maximize Value by Understanding the Productivity Paradox and Predicting Reliability:
