Mobile Application Development Support, State of Connecticut Department of Social Services
Overview
Connecticut's Department of Social Services (DSS) delivers and funds a wide range of programs and services as Connecticut’s multi-faceted health and human services agency. DSS serves about 1 million residents of all ages in all 169 Connecticut cities and towns. We support the basic needs of children, families, older and other adults, including persons with disabilities. Services are delivered through 12 field offices, central administration, and online and phone access options.
Project Scope
The Department of Social Services (DSS) was seeking a mobile application development vendor for building, maintaining, and customizing an enterprise mobile app for DSS. The vendor was expected to work in conjunction with onsite system integrators during phase 1 of the project to transition into their work. The was required to continue on future phases of the app development on own after the transition from the system integrators. Objectives for this engagement included:
- Hands-on Robotics Process Automation development and maintenance
- Work closely with vendors and other teams
- To work with the system integrators and DSS teams to understand the business and architectural setup of some of the DSS Enterprise applications
- Contribute to all aspects (requirements, user experience, design, test, release, support) of the development cycle for all phases.
- Create detailed documentation, mentor support staff.
- Stay up to date with new technology and best practices.
- To work in collaboration in a cross-functional team and agile development environment.
- Perform in-depth testing of the app with respect to application, security, performance, and user experience.
- To assist in the development of information systems blueprints, design patterns, templates for best-in-class software development and to ensure high levels of software reuse and the migration towards service-oriented architecture (SOA).
- To facilitate application design sessions and develops general and detailed design specifications for moderate to complex systems.
Solution
V Group as a prime vendor maintained project communications, complied with DSS policies and procedures. We reviewed and provided feedback on measurable and achievable deliverables daily; reviewed timelines with the project manager and provided daily status on the deliverables for the day. Our team worked with team members to facilitate technical sessions and addressed or escalated issues or risks to deliverables in a timely manner to prevent delays in schedules. We used the DSS-supplied shared site to store and collaborate on project documentation along with being responsible for reviewing project tasks, schedules, and resources and making changes or additions, as appropriate; measuring and evaluating progress against the Project Management Plan (PMP) with DSS. Apart from these below were part of the V Group’s deliverables during the project execution:
- Address and resolve deviations from the PMP
- Participate in regularly scheduled project status meetings
- Prepare and submit Weekly Status Reports to the DSS IT Manager
- Follow the Project Change Control Procedure
- Resolve deviations from the estimated schedule
- Review the monthly project status, acting on issues, actions, and recommendations set forth in the Weekly Status Reports
- Formats for regular reports and issue logs will also be established.
- Respond to emails in a timely manner
- Attend, in person, critical meetings as determined by DSS. A schedule, as well as a regular time and format for these meetings, will be established.