Consulting

Cutter's more than 150 Senior Consultants have deep experience providing consulting assistance to organizations worldwide. From Agile Enablement assessments to developing an appropriate enterprise architecture plan, from benchmarking your software development processes to determining a strategy for implementing business performance management dashboards for executives, from working with your IT strategic planning committee to conducting due diligence on a potential outsourcing partner, and more, Cutter's subject- and domain-area expertise is unparalleled.

Case Studies

 

Client Profile: International leader in workforce management software

Project Focus: Transition a large engineering department to Agile
Consulting Type: Major change initiative
Practice Area: Agile Project Management

Because its products (over 20) are all released at the same time as a suite, this client chose a group-wide strategy for transitioning its engineering department of 600 people (developers, QA staff, product managers, architects, etc.) to an agile organization, rather than an incremental one. Key focal points for the client were to improve product quality and team performance, as the complexity of their product line had increased dramatically over the past few years. After an extensive qualitative and quantitative assessment of the organization, we recommended an "agile lite" approach consisting of a blending of Agile Project Management and Industrial Extreme Programming. The transition began with extensive training (An Agile Overview, Agile Project Management, Agile for Product Management, IXP components for technical staff), assistance in chartering some 40 individual project teams, and several months of on-site coaching. Other recommendations implemented by the client addressed issues related to large integrated systems: frequent total integration, cross-team coordination, organizational changes, performance measurement changes, and multi-level release planning. Transition assistance was provided at all levels of the organization, from developers and QA staff to managers, directors, and the VP. The transition to agile and first product release following the transition were considered very successful by the VP of engineering.

 

Client Profile: Government agency involved in commerce

Project Focus: Independent design review of outsourced project
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Enterprise Architecture, Sourcing, Business-IT Strategies

Cutter performed numerous Independent Architecture and Design Review (IADR) activities for outsourced development projects for a government agency. Some example evaluation criteria included:

• Strategic Perspective: Does the architecture/design support the business strategies, including continuity/contingency, vendor neutrality, enterprise architecture, etc.?

• Technical Perspective: Does the architecture/design conform to architectural requirements, use effective design, have an effective development environment, have appropriate infrastructure impacts, accommodate expected growth and scale, etc.? Is the security design appropriate?

• Business, Project Management and Other Perspectives: Does the architecture/design provide a basis for implementing the business requirements? Does it provide adequate guidance to development teams on technical challenges, resolutions, and patterns? Does it follow industry best practices for modeling, implementation, testing, and documentation?

The results of the evaluations led to numerous improvements in the design and testing of projects and the elimination of redundant development activities.

 

Client Profile: International scientific instrument manufacturer

Project Focus: Transition to Agile development methods for both software and hardware
Consulting Type: Major change initiative
Practice Area: Agile Project Management

The initial engagement with this client was to transition their software development groups to agile methods. As the software transition showed significant success, Cutter helped implement agile practices in the hardware project teams as well. After several agile projects had been completed by this client, Cutter metrics consultants conducted a before and after analysis that showed overall (pre-agile versus agile projects): defects reduced by 83%, schedule reduced by 24%, costs reduced by 61%, and staffing reduced by 39%). For several software teams Cutter provided training, project chartering facilitation, and extensive on-site coaching for several months. Our experience has been that hands-on coaching is critical to a rapid and effective agile transition. Cutter also provided extensive project chartering facilitation, facilitation training, and agile project coaching for a half-dozen large hardware projects for this client. We assisted in adapting agile practices to their hardware environment and developing a phase-gate governance system that incorporate agile methods.

 

Client Profile: National loan servicing agency

Project Focus: Architecture Review and Recommendation
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Enterprise Architecture

Cutter evaluated this major mortgage provider's existing environment, which was based on a highly customized and modified 25-year old application, combined with a new, but unpopular, workflow-based application. Cutter provided recommendations for immediate improvements to the workflow application and task definitions, an architecture for consolidating and rationalizing the extensions to the application for the mid-term, and an architecture and transition strategy for a target SOA architecture over 3 years. Cutter worked with the IT management to begin the transition to SOA.

 

Client Profile: Global leader in publishing information for professionals

Project Focus: Transition to Agile
Consulting Type: Major change initiative
Practice Area: Agile Project Management

This client's publication services, both print and web-based, cover medical, legal, education, and business. Cutter's senior team worked with key client managers to raise the awareness of agile methods within the organization, including an all-day session with worldwide managers in New York City, and a speaking engagement at the client's worldwide technical conference. We helped the client plan their agile transition, worked with them on implementing effective collaboration practices, and developing an agile assessment tool. We provided training, chartering, and coaching services to several teams in the US and one in England.

 

Client Profile: State Department of Transportation

Project Focus: Create an Enterprise Architecture
Consulting Type: Major change initiative
Practice Area: Enterprise Architecture, Business-IT Strategies

Cutter has had a long-term consulting relationship with the state Department of Transportation. In 2002-2003, Cutter helped them undertake a program to: (1) simultaneously develop a Strategic IT Plan and (2) develop an initial EA report and establish an EA group. Working with business and IT leaders using JAD sessions and other techniques they developed business and information architectures based on context and workflow diagrams. These were implemented in the EA repository, including other techniques for long-term planning and strategic decision making, including BNC and 'radar' diagrams. The architectural effort was so successful, that the DOT Architect was promoted to the EA position for the entire state. Subsequent activities have included working with DOT and State enterprise architects to interface the program with SDLC and to spread the program to other Agencies. In 2005, the DOT EA Program received the State and Local Government Award at the Annual Federal Enterprise Architecture Conference in Washington D.C.

 

Client Profile: Large, national bank and financial services organization.

Project Focus: Develop and deliver custom training course
Consulting Type: On-site training
Practice Area: Enterprise Architecture

Like many organizations, this bank is faced with a shortage of skilled architects. To make matters worse, many current architects are nearing retirement age. To address these issues, Cutter developed a 6-part, custom training program to cover all aspects of EA, both in the industry and in this particular organization. Each module was 4 or 5 days, and was presented twice (in different locations). Custom labs were developed that integrated bank-specific examples, processes, and artifacts so that architects could take what they learned directly back to their jobs. The following year, the bank re-engaged the Cutter team to create an annual EA training program based on the initial training, which is now in its fifth year.

 

Client Profile: Student loan guarantee organization

Project Focus: Create Enterprise Architecture Vision and Road Map.
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Enterprise Architecture, Business-IT Strategies

The IT infrastructure for a student loan corporation had grown into a hodge-podge of different platforms, systems, and integration. In addition to the high cost of maintenance and unnecessary complexity, the corporation was not able to keep pace with the changes in the industry. Working with the Executive Committee and business and IT leaders, Cutter developed a business-driven Enterprise Architecture, including high-level business, information, application, and technology architectures and developed a roadmap for transitioning the technology, architecture, and organization from the current situation to the target future state. The corporation is currently in the first phases of implementation of the roadmap.

 

Client Profile: System Integrator

Project Focus: Determine how global consumer product firms extract value from IT
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

For this engagement, the client requested custom research exploring the role of IT for global firms that manufacture, market, and move around perishable consumer products. The Cutter team examined the way companies extract value from IT in the context of globalization, specifically the extent to which IT can provide competitive advantage, the role of IT in global logistics and transportation, and the role of IT in support of product and service innovation processes. Cutter addressed questions of governance, as well as the importance of some supply chain elements in the IT initiatives of these kinds of companies. Cutter discussed and interpreted general trends that we observe in IT, and zeroed in on those that are especially relevant to a company in the perishable consumer products business. The Cutter report made use of Professor Rob Austin's and Professor Richard Nolan's research in the area of innovation, as well as looking at research on the role of IT in enterprise-level manufacturing, product design, and consumer goods. As part of its research effort, Cutter assessed the competitive importance of innovation and provided interpretations of the research findings based on our current work on how IT functions in corporate innovation processes.

 

Client Profile: Leading Think Tank

Project Focus: Research Best Practices for Board-Level IT Governance
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

Cutter's client required state-of-the-art information on board-level oversight of IT. A team of Cutter experts developed and administered a questionnaire for senior executives (focusing on CIOs, CTOs, and CEOs) at key firms, investigating how companies handle IT risk management and governance, including the practical operation of IT Oversight Committees, the obstacles, and which practices have proven most effective. The survey examined the activities conducted by IT Oversight Committees and the support they receive from executives such as the CIO and CEO. Cutter's team then conducted in-depth interviews, in-person and by phone, with executives from the companies that had the most useful experiences to share. The final report contained the results and analysis of the survey and interviews, together with an extensive review of all recent case studies and literature on the topic. In addition, the Cutter team met with the client to discuss the results and field questions on best practices in IT governance and the monitoring of technology investments.

 

 

Client Profile: Defense contractor

Project Focus: Conduct organizational assessment
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

This defense contractor required an organizational assessment of IT. Cutter's team performed a review that was holistic in its approach, examining not only processes, but also how work was being done, along with organizational and cultural issues. The assessment was designed to identify the most promising opportunities for change and to finesse change resistance, to be both a tremendous morale-builder and an extremely effective change mechanism. The engagement focused on interviews with representatives from all departments plus meetings with senior executives, concluding with a wrap-up session for all participants. The strategy session and a final report featured an action plan, delivering specific, high-level recommendations for realizing quick gains and effective improvements.

 

Client Profile: Global pharmaceutical firm

Project Focus: Devise IT strategy and plan
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

In preparation for facilitating a multi-day IT strategy session, one of Cutter's IT strategy experts interviewed key participants individually by phone and collaborated with the CIO and Global IT team to plan the format, approach, and agenda for the sessions. Prior to facilitating the sessions, Cutter's expert participated in an advance day of team-building. Then, following the session, Cutter summarized the group's conclusions, combined them with our recommendations, and delivered a bulleted action plan to the client firm's IT executives.

 

Client Profile: State government

Engagement Focus: State-wide project portfolio management
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

For this engagement, Cutter's Senior Consultants created and implemented a state-wide project portfolio management process for all state agencies. The result is that the Governor and the heads of the state agencies now understand the value of their IT project portfolios and are able to track projects' progress to ensure they achieve their full value. The State's objectives included creating a standard prioritization and approval process to be used by each agency management team, a standard project status reporting process to manage each agency's ongoing projects, and a monthly prioritization and project status report. This report is given to the head of the agency, to a state-wide executive committee, and to the Governor's Office. Cutter's consultants planned the development and implementation project, provided training and planning exercises for the project team, and followed through the design, approval, and agency roll-out steps. By the end of the engagement, implementation was successful in the four largest agencies, with the plan to complete all agencies well underway. During the project, the Cutter team developed the basic tools and methodologies, developed the training materials, and conducted management team meetings with the four largest agencies.

 

Client Profile: Leading regional full-service bank

Engagement Focus: Strategic technology assessment and portfolio management
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

In this engagement (Phase 1), Cutter's Senior Consultants conducted a complete technology assessment, covering the bank's corporate activities and lines of business (e.g., community-based branches, wealth management, credit card, and mortgage.) Cutter's assessments focused on the bank's strategic direction and addressed how well its current technology practices - infrastructure, applications, and organizations - were suited for supporting the current and future strategic directions. Cutter developed a complete portfolio management assessment process, and a thorough review of the existing applications and infrastructure services was done. Cutter's Senior Consultants presented their recommendations on the bank's IT organizations and technologies to the CIO, bank management and the Board.

 

Client Profile: Leading regional full-service bank

Engagement Focus: Strategic IT planning, portfolio management, service-level agreements
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

In this phase (II) of the engagement, Cutter planned and supported the execution of the strategic recommendations that followed the strategic technology assessment (Phase I). This allowed the Board, the bank's Management Cutter consultants recommended plans and directions for development of key IT areas, resulting in the bank's development of a Strategic IT Plan covering all lines of business, service-level agreements with both technology providers and the bank's business units, governance practices including project portfolio management, and IT financial management including budgeting. For each area, Cutter consultants established the frameworks, conducted training sessions with bank personnel, and oversaw the initial implementation. Following the initial implementations, the bank further developed the plans and directions to be used going forward.

 

Client Profile: Leading global energy services company

Engagement Focus: Enterprise-wide portfolio management and assessment of the complete IT spend
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

This engagement covered the strategic value and performance assessment of the complete IT spend for a company conducting business world-wide. Cutter's Senior Consultants, who were engaged by the IT financial management team of this organization, created frameworks and oversaw the collection of information to develop a complete portfolio management framework for projects, applications, infrastructure services, user services, and management services, which together represented 100% of the company's IT spend. Cutter conducted sessions with business unit and IT unit managers to collect the assessment information, analyzed the data, and worked with the financial management teams to produce recommendations for applications, infrastructure services, user services, and projects in the current and subsequent budget cycles, and provided the CIO with a complete review of the overall spend for the company as a whole and for each of the key business units.

 

Client Profile: Fortune 100 energy company

Engagement Focus: Project portfolio management and governance.
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

Senior executives at this organization required effective cost containment and maintenance of no more than "flat" IT expenditures year-over-year. For this engagement, Cutter Senior Consultants designed and implemented a corporate-wide project portfolio assessment, ranking, and decision-making process to help meet this goal. Their frameworks focused on each project's strategic alignment, risk profile, and financial returns adjusted for uncertainty. The engagement included performing pilot implementations throughout the company, and working with the CIO and governance group to interpret results and make decisions, as well as working with project management and PMO groups to establish ongoing processes for continuing prioritization and review throughout the year.

 

Client Profile: Fortune 100 financial services

Engagement Focus: Enterprise-wide project prioritization and portfolio management
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

The management team of this organization wanted an enterprise priority decision process for its very substantial projects, covering over 500 per year, many of them cropping up throughout the year. By applying their portfolio management frameworks and assessment processes, Cutter's Senior Consultants were able to provide the management team a complete assessment, ranking, and decision-making capabilities based on 1) enterprise-wide strategic alignment, 2) business-unit strategic alignment, 3) technical/strategic alignment, 4) technical risk, and 5) security risk. A pilot covering two business units - one line-of-business, one corporate area - was completed with integrated 1-n prioritization for the enterprise. The company was able to select a subset of factors for first-year implementation, with the capability of adding the other factors with experience.

 

Client Profile: A regionally-dominant multi-business enterprise

Engagement Focus: Strategic IT planning
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

This company operates some forty separate lines of business, supported through a corporate shared IT service. Company management required a thorough business-driven Strategic IT Plan, linked to annual budgets and three-year budget forecasts. This engagement produced the planning frameworks, processes, training documentation and an initial pilot in four major lines-of-business. This was accomplished by applying our Strategic IT Planning frameworks, starting with business strategic intentions. During this engagement, Cutter Senior Consultants worked with a company-wide project team representing the largest business units. A pilot plan was produced for four of the largest business units, which was used as primary training exercises for the project team as a whole. The company will apply the complete process throughout all business units in the coming year.

 

Client Profile: A nationally-dominant energy company

Project Profile: Business-based project requirements
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

This organization's CIO wanted a strengthened project planning process to achieve strong business linkage. Cutter accomplished this by applying our project requirements frameworks, focused on supporting company and business unit strategic intentions. Cutter prioritization and portfolio management frameworks were applied to demonstrate business-based decision-making and prioritization. An extensive training workshop covered the key elements of business-based project requirements coupled with business-driven project prioritization.

 

Client Profile: Leading loan services company

Engagement Focus: Strategic technology assessment and portfolio management
Consulting Type: Short-term strategic consulting
Practice Area: Business-IT Strategies

This engagement provided the CEO and Board with a thorough IT organizational assessment, including governance process and application and infrastructure portfolio assessment. The resulting recommendations gave the CEO and Board direction for IT organizational development to meet future business requirements. To accomplish this, Cutter's Senior Consultants conducted a complete organization assessment focused on the company's strategic directions. It addressed how well the organization's current technology practices - infrastructure, applications, and organizations - were suited for supporting current and future strategic directions. Cutter developed a portfolio management assessment process, and conducted a thorough review of existing applications and infrastructure services. Cutter recommendations were delivered to the CEO and Board.

 

Client Profile: Federal government agency

Project Focus: Review procedures and recommend improvements for a mission-critical process
Consulting Type: Team Consulting
Practice Area: Enterprise Architecture

A government agency charged with resolving complex financial crises in a very short time-frame asked Cutter to review its procedures and recommend improvements to some specific tasks. We were asked to explore whether other fields, unrelated to finance or government, faced the same kinds of challenges and whether the solutions they used were applicable in this case. In addition we were asked to comment on other parts of their mission-critical process. John Tibbetts, a member of the Enterprise Architecture practice, saw the value in “casting a wide net,” and invited 7 other Cutter consultants – Lou Mazzucchelli, Larissa Moss, Ken Orr, Mike Rosen, Mark Seiden, Bill Ulrich, and Jim Watson – to contribute their experiences and expertise. The resulting study summarized discussion by the Cutter experts on 8 different topics including algorithms, process optimization, opportunities for parallelism, workflow and case-handling, processing models including datacenter-in-a-can and cloud computing, and portal security. There were sense-of-the-team recommendations, and where the experts disagreed we included minority opinions as well.

 

Client Profile: International policy organization

Project Focus: Knowledge management and social networking solutions
Consulting Type: Team Consulting
Practice Area: Business Intelligence

A multi-lateral organization involved in international policy, law, and aid wanted to acquire a global knowledge management system that would allow them to share information among disparate agencies and that would include a social networking component. They asked Cutter for advice. John Tibbetts, of Cutter’s Enterprise Architecture Practice, assembled had a team of expert Cutter consultants including David Coleman, a leading expert on collaborative strategies, Lou Mazzucchelli, a software business acquisition expert, and Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the wiki. The team produced a report that compared leading commercial collaboration software providers, a Software-as-a-Service provider, and an open source solution with accompanying commercial support. The deliverable included a summary of vendor options, a rollout plan, plus anticipated capital and operating expenses for the first two years.