For every business there are many problems or needs that can be addressed. Technology will only be able to solve certain problems. For every one of those there are many technologies that will work. For every technology there are many more products or solutions of that technology. And, for every product or solution there are that many more vendors. How do you know if the vendor you picked is even going to have a product, a technology or a solution that can solve your problem and that it's the right problem to solve with technology? First you need to figure out which business problems need to be solved. Then you need to narrow down which of those business problems can be solved with technology. After that you need to determine which technologies are the right ones to apply to solve those problems. Only then can you identify the technology product or solution to address those needs. Don't even think about talking to a developer or vendor until you've done these steps. You don't buy a house or a car without knowing what you want first. Don't buy technology that way either. There are many good reasons to buy technology. Make sure you address those reasons when you do. Entinex is the technology strategy company. We are truly independent technology advisors; providing objective, unbiased technology advice to business executives of small, medium and non-profit companies. Entinex remains objective and unbiased by not developing, selling, distributing, or being assiciated with any specific technology. Our role is to make sure our clients get the technology they need at a price they can afford with an ROI they can count on. Entinex helps clients identify the role of information and the role of technology in their business so that we can help connect businesses with the technology that will help them realize their business strategies and plans. This is the job of a CIO (Chief Information Officer). Even if they can afford a full-time CIO, our clients are either too small, or, have only a limited need for a CIO. Small, medium and non-profit companies count on Entinex as their outsourced CIO. Did you know that your technology project has an 80% chance of failing? Do you know what to do to improve those odds? Do you know what to ask your software developer or vendor to make sure they know what to do so that the project you're paying them to do doesn't fail? Business executives and technology developers have a mismatch in two key areas: communication and priorities. Business people and technology developers have a basic communication problem in that the business folks can't speak about their business in technology terms, and the technical folks don't know enough about a particular business to convey technical concepts in a way that makes sense to the business people. Similarly, it's not on a business executive's priority list to get to know all about technology just to be able to define their needs in technical terms. And, it's not a developer's priority to learn the ins and outs of a business so that they can glean the answers they need from a business person to be able to deliver a product or solution. Entinex solves these mismatches by providing the needed translation between business and technology. Less than 3 out of 10 software projects succeed to come in on time, come in on budget, do what the customer wants them to do. Why should your software project be among the (more than) 7 failed projects? Over 50% of all failed projects over-run their budgets by 189%, over-run their Schedules by 222%, deliver an average of 60% of what the customer wanted. In other words, customers paid twice as much, waited twice as long and got half of what they expected. The common theme is that NONE ever had a reliable estimate in the 1st place. The odds are against you. Most software developers and their clients have no means of accurately estimating the software project, predicting the outcome of projects or ensuring project success. When business executives are faced with a technology decision, where can they go? Will a vendor be objective? Will a colleague be qualified? Will their in-law understand the needs of their business? Entinex is the business executive's advocate. We do not take on technology development projects ourselves. Instead, we refer all actual development to qualified providers. This ensures that our recommendations are in our clients' best interests, not ours. Furthermore, Entinex receives no commissions, referral fees or kick-backs from any of these referrals. For these clients we provide the services of an Outsourced CIO. It's really quite simple: someone has to think strategically about technology for your business. If no one at your company does that for you, then call Entinex. When Entinex works with a client, because we are not selling any software or technology, we can make suggestions that would seem self-serving if made by a software developer or product vendor. In the end, the client is more likely to be responsive to a project scope that is much larger than when proposed by the developer directly. Developers win because they get a bigger contract, a fully fleshed-out specification, and someone who knows how to prevent scope creep. Clients win because they get what they need and have an advocate for their expectations. Would you like your software estimates to improve? Would you like to have predictability and consistency in your software projects? Wouldn't it be nice if you could forecast your capacity for new work and your sales effort? Wouldn't better estimates result in happier clients? Improving your ability to estimate software projects depends on your ability to produce reliable businss intelligence about your software development process. Reliable business intelligence comes from consistent data, and consisten data comes from consistent processes. Processes at the developer level must feed into processes at the management level in a meaningful way. This requires that management methods be defined independently of the development methods. There's a difference between management methodologies and development methodologies. Knowing this difference is the key to successful software process improvement. Management methods give software companies the ability to make management decisions and commitments internally and to customers. These decisions and commitments are made on the basis of data produced in a few key process areas. Without these processes, the data is unreliable, therefore, project predictability and success is only one project deep and doesn't fully contribute to the projections and success of the company. Software development isn't manufacturing. So why do people keep trying to use manufacturing methods on software? Manufacturing QA doesn't work in software which is why so much software QA is so painful. Entinex has the solution. Don't let obsolete thinking about software processes intimidate you out of pursuing a CMMI level rating. Old-style thinking about software processes have not kept up with the times, but Entinex has. We understand that you're in business not for the process but to make money selling software products, solutions, and services. Let us help you achieve your process goals without breaking your bank or development rhythm. Entinex helps small or agile software developers achieve high level ratings of CMMI. CMMI can be applied to small companies and in agile development environments and methods. You can achieve a CMMI level rating even though you use XP (Extreme Programming) or another Agile Development approach or method. Looking for help implementing CMMI? Need someone who will understand that 'your're different?' Looking for discipline in a lightweight environment? Entinex understands and can help you achieve your process objectives. Processes are fueled by people. People hate heavy-handed (bad) processes. Too many process are bad. Entinex can help you fit your processes to the CMMI. Modern software needs QA processes that more closely fitted to each project, are dynamically adapting to the project and making development cheaper, better, and faster on every subsequent project; that truly add business value to the QA process. On time working product is a must. Processes must reflect the demands of the customer -- first and foremost. Processes must be adaptive and scalable to handle exceptions. NEED: Process that are matched to project objectives before the project gets under way and get into the detail of the standards and methods so that when the standards are followed they automatically generate the necessary 'proof' of process compliance. DON’T NEED: Processes that simply create automated markers and flags, INSTEAD: approaches that enmesh metrics and data generation into the development process so that the successful output of the process is only possible if the process was properly followed. In a well integrated project generating the data QA needs would merely be a report that runs every so often querying certain tables and build repositories. A QA program at this level of abstraction is infinitely scalable to any project, as long as there’s the will to cooperate for the purposes of benefiting the business.
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Leaning, Aligning, and Delivering Value.SM
Entinex is proud to be an

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CMMI SCAMPI and
Introduction to CMMI Services.

Entinex is the technology strategy company.

We fix a serious problem in the technology industry:

Fewer than 3 out of 10 software projects come in on time and on budget while delivering the expected results.

Most software companies and technology buyers don't know about this reality...   What's worse, most wouldn't even know what to do about it.

That's where Entinex comes in...

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Entinex is the premier process improvement expert for small-to-medium organizations developing products, providing services of all kinds, and interested in optimizing their human resource workforce.  We have particular expertise with teams using agile software development methods. 

Whether or not your goal is to achieve a CMMI (DEV, SVC, ACQ, or P-CMM) level rating, our consultants and SEI-Certified experts take a patent-pending, reality-based process solutioneering™ approach to implementing CMMI for Development, for Services, and People-CMM that shuns heavy-handed process "overlay" (unlike too many of our peers).

Whether you're "traditional" or "agile", our Agile CMMI approach is what you've been looking for:

  • Get from estimates to actuals predictably, profitably, consistently.
  • Create a learning workforce capable of rapidly adjusting to the market.
  • Transform the organization's culture into one that continuously improves itself and the work it does.
  • Deliver services and adapt to the changing needs of customers.

Read our Agile CMMI blog, and see our brutally honest, totally hip CMMI FAQ.

Translating technology dollars into business sense.®

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