Meeting Our Clients’ Challenges

The following is a series of brief snapshots of AEGIS past performance covering a wide range of capabilities and solutions we have developed in response to our clients’ diverse needs.

Client: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (IV&V)

NRC Logo

The NRC is responsible for regulation of nuclear reactors outside the Dept. of Defense as well as identification and control of all sources of nuclear materials throughout the country (e.g., medical devices, industrial materials, etc.). Their IT organization requires highly skilled technologists and analysts to provide independent verification and validation (IV&V), technical analysis, strategic planning, and security reviews for systems throughout the agency.

AEGIS has provided a full range of IV&V, testing, strategic planning, and security certification and accreditation (C&A) reviews through multiple contracts since 2002. As necessary, we have identified expert large and small subcontractor firms to augment our capabilities for a best-in-class team approach.

As a result of our outstanding record of successful results finding critical issues and offering valuable research and guidance to the agency, we have been awarded more than 80% of all IV&V task orders issued through multiple-award contracts over the past 10 years. Recognition of our team’s efforts includes a Letter of Commendation from the NRC.

Client: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (Automated Testing)

DHS Logo

USCIS has been one of the most progressive federal agencies in terms of adopting Agile software development practices as a result of the efforts of CIO Marc Schwartz who previously led Silicon Valley firms and drove the cultural change needed for Agile to success in government. USCIS needed a comprehensive test & evaluation program to align with multiple agile development contracts.

AEGIS assisted our prime contractor, Capgemini, in developing the initial pillar of T&E program support – Transformation – then deploying that same model to the remaining pillars – Interoperability, Automation, and Performance. We helped evaluate and implement automation tools, developed a highly effective, rapid staffing onboarding program, and directly supported program management to include regular briefings to USCIS leadership.

Through our efforts, automation of USCIS testing has increased dramatically, maintaining pace with the agency’s aggressive software development velocity in light of the current administration’s focus on immigration reforms. We have continuously improved our processes with emergent automated tools, natural language processing, and increasingly effective program management.

Client: U.S. Department of State (Automated Testing)

DoS Logo

DoS lacked an effective software testing program for the 120+ systems and 75 different system integrators within the portfolio of Bureau of Consular Affairs which handles such things as passport issuance. As a result, testing was the most significant bottleneck in the IT organization’s ability to support the business units of Consular Affairs. DoS chose to replace the incumbent testing/IV&V contractor with our team to gain a fresh approach.

AEGIS created a “Development Integration Lab” concept, stood it up, staffed it, and began a structured approach to scheduling, executing, and reporting on software testing. We subsequently introduced automated testing tools to dramatically increase the capacity and through-rate of the test lab. We designed and implemented a tool for product owners to schedule their tests online. The system automatically configures the requisite test data in time for deployment of the release candidate into the test environment.

Automation minimized the need for test engineers to spend time on routine and even mundane testing activities. Instead, it increased testing capacity and velocity allowing those test engineers to focus on test development, defect analysis, and troubleshooting support to developers. In addition, our delivery of the automated test scheduling tool enabled a large degree of self-service to product owners increasing efficiency of the overall testing process.

Client: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Agile Software Development and Testing)

Finra Logo

FINRA’s technical culture is highly Agile. Their organizational culture demands highly experienced personnel working in elite small teams. They build custom software solutions to support their regulators and analysts in oversight of the US security trading industry.

AEGIS deployed a senior technical architect with 20 years’ experience to begin to support the FINRA IT organization. Over time we added a senior software testing architect, a program management expert, and another architect. We continue to augment FINRA’s team with well experienced IT professionals.

AEGIS has maintained a key place on FINRA’s team for more than 10 years, helping them successfully deliver dozens of high quality software releases enhancing the self-regulatory effectiveness of the financial services industry in the US.

Client: U.S. Army – Human Resource Systems (Custom Testing Solution)

Army Logo

Unique technical architecture of a forward-deployed system for in-theater soldier accountability/readiness system required testing for load, performance, and stress, but off-the-shelf testing cools could not support the system’s message-based architecture.

AEGIS developed a customized testing harness comprised of a rack of blade servers running hundreds of virtual machines to generate real-world representative load. We developed a test driver to trigger scripts for test scenarios. We integrated a network shaping tool to model network latency and bandwidth limitations common in a new theater of operations.

AEGIS’ expertise in not only the discipline of testing, but also software design and development allowed us to do what otherwise could not have been done: we furnished the client with a custom-built testing solution engineered specifically for their unique software architecture. Our testing revealed a number of critical issues that were subsequently addressed before go live, helping ensure a successful launch. The framework remained in place for the development team to continue to use as the system was enhanced over time.

Client: AEGIS CMMI Implementation (Organizational Change / Process Improvement)

AEGIS Logo

As a small, growing IT development and services firm, AEGIS needed to establish an objective metric demonstrating organizational maturity meeting or exceeding that of larger firms.

AEGIS focused on implementing the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) which was born out of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and had the benefit of wide recognition in the federal government IT community. We initially spent approximately 18 months implementing the model and preparing for our initial SCAMPI appraisal.

AEGIS achieved CMMI Maturity Level 3 in 2009 and has maintained that rating for both Development and Services since that time through a total of four triennial appraisals to date. But more important than the rating, our CMMI implementation has provided a solid framework that supports our growth and drives repeatable successful results for our clients. In 2016 AEGIS won the inaugural CMMI Institute Capability Challenge award.

Client: Ahold Delhaize [Stop n’ Shop, Giant, etc.] (Agile software/product development and testing)

Giant Foods Logo

Giant Food of Maryland depends on a variety of third party logistics hardware and software to integrate with a custom IT system used for scheduling and routing inventory delivery to its stores. The system requirements routinely change as do the third party solutions. Giant’s acquisition by Royal Ahold, who in turn merged to create Ahold Delhaize, added more complexity but also opportunities to expand Giant’s solution to Stop n’ Shop and other chains within the corporation.

AEGIS built and continues to maintain the Transportation Management System (TMS) used by Ahold Delhaize. We have adapted it over time to implement union-driven labor rule changes as well as integration of new technology for in-cab tractor tracking for the trucks picking up and delivering loads to each store every day. We are currently working to modernize TMS by creating a web-based edition.
AEGIS has maintained our relationship with Giant/Ahold for nearly 20 years. Our team has been repeatedly praised for flexibility, speed of implementation, and high quality deliverables – all of which as critical to the success of the stores served by our software. TMS is owned by AEGIS and we are currently working to fully productize it and implement it for other businesses with similar transportation logistics use cases.