I have been using QSM products for 10 years while working on highly reliable telecommunications and financial industry products. I have found that the SLIM suite is an exceptional set of tools for project managers and process improvement teams. Additionally, the QSM team completes the package by providing top-notch service and support.

My Process Improvement Team uses SLIM-Metrics to organize and present our organizational performance data in a clear format for our management team. With a simple set of data we get a picture our trends relative to our goals. We also are able to compare our performance against the QSM industry database to give our senior management, customers, and owners critical benchmark information.

SLIM-Estimate and SLIM-Control enable us to plan and monitor our most critical projects more effectively. On many occasions I have seen the estimates and status derived with these tools prove more accurate that the more qualitative or "expert-driven" information provided by the project teams. Using both sets of information together has made for a powerful and accurate management process. Recently, SLIM-Control helped us see that we were falling critically behind in design and code delivery on a major project. This in turn helped us avoid several million in additional cost overruns.

These are just a few examples of how the QSM team and the SLIM products have helped my organization. Based on our previous success, I am now looking to expand our SLIM usage into the bid generation and proposal evaluation processes. Based on the effectiveness and quality of the products, as well as the great team supporting us, I expect to be a QSM customer for a long time.

Director
Major Financial Services Institution
(Anonymous by request)

I'm the Director of Delivery Assurance for a 5,000 person Applications
Services Division within CSC, servicing over 50 clients in the commercial
outsourcing market. I have worked with QSM for over 14 years and rely
heavily on their products and support. SLIM Estimate is the
key reference estimating tool for my division Sr. Management. If a project
manager brings any other input - such as their personal expert judgement -
it has to match with SLIM results or division management is not ready to
commit to the budget and schedule for our customers. Using the QSM
products, along with the other process rigor we apply, has helped us to
deliver 98% on budget and 97% on schedule year after year.

The products are exceptional, but the service we get when we call is even
better. Whether our project managers and estimators run into an unusual
situation or are just reaching for a deeper understanding of the tools,
QSM spends as much time as needed with my staff, and provides additional
references, approaches, new insights every time. We have not yet gone to
them without having help in solving the immediate problem. This is
critical in the pressure we are under to meet deadlines to deliver to our
customers. The training provided is excellent, practical, and useable
immediately the day after. They bend over backwards in helping us get to a
place where we can both understand how to use to tools, but also where not
to use the tools.

I've been a user of their products for a long time and watched how committed they are to improving an already great set of products year after
year. The current set, version 6.0, is simply in a class by itself compared to the competitors - and they already were in that place before the upgrade.

John G. Tittle
Director, ASD Delivery Assurance
Computer Sciences Corporation

"I have been a SLIM User for about seven years at three Fortune 500
companies, all with different business applications. Starting with SLIM- Control for project tracking and oversight, followed by SLIM Estimate
and SLIM-Metrics, I have personally seen projects save time, money, and
effort through the visibility SLIM tools provide into the software
development process.

I could list dozens of scenarios when the use of SLIM tools helped me avoid catastrophic failures. The most significant examples are related to "slip rates". On one program, SLIM-Control helped us realize that we were seeing a schedule slip of two months for every elapsed calendar month. If left undiscovered, we would not have known that we were on a path to NEVER FINISH! In the reliability (quality) area, we tracked both the date we expected to meet our quality target (Mean Time To Defect), as well as the forecasted product reliability at the promised delivery date.

In most every case, the quality we expected to provide at the committed delivery date was not forecasted to occur. Knowing this gave us ample lead time to:

1) coordinate and collaborate with our customers and manage their expectations
2) initiate internal analyses to uncover and address various project deficiencies.

I have experienced first-hand the tremendous asset the SLIM tool suite
has become on so many projects. SLIM tools provide users with the ability to
be more proactive, positively impressing the boss and the
customer simultaneously! I have come to consider the use of SLIM a
"Critical Success Factor".

Jim Kirk
Managment & Data Systems
Lockheed-Martin Corporation

"When planning new software developments, we use SLIM-Estimate in conjunction with our expert-generated estimates to develop preliminary schedules and staffing plans. After we enter just a few key project parameters, SLIM-Estimate gives us a view of staffing level/release date tradeoffs. We get valuable insights by comparing our project solutions with industry trendline data and our own historical project execution data.

QSM product quality is excellent – we haven’t experienced any unexplained hang-ups or quirky operation. The user interface is highly intuitive and nearly every aspect of the product is configurable. And QSM product training is top-notch – thorough (but not laborious), the instructors “know their stuff” and tailor the class to students’ needs, and the presentation materials are easy to follow. Lastly, QSM product support is superb – we can always reach an actual person who provides prompt, courteous, correct answers to our questions. QSM actively solicits product feedback, is open to custom development work, and even provided user manuals in electronic format for our convenience. Great company … great products!"

Project Manager
Major PLC Manufacturer
(anonymous by request)

"Every month we have an EDS-wide Estimating conference call. We invited (two QSM support personnel) to attend our June meeting to field questions. Their knowledge and expertise were paramount to a successful meeting. What impressed me even more was the fact that they knew virtually all of the people on the call, from around the world. Typically, they both offered additional service to some of the participants, and have since followed up with those people. Our Account Manager at QSM provides the same high level of service.

This is nothing new: we are used to this level of service from QSM. Customer service and quality products have been the hallmark of my 5
years of using SLIM. The staff at QSM are accessible and eager to assist.
I know they have spent many hours researching requests for us."

Duane Shields
Process Improvement Team
EDS US Government Solutions