A state agency sought Quality Assurance (QA) services for their Modernization and Refactoring Project. This project sought to modernize the core Registration and Titling systems – including the database and application code – by migrating the system onto a modern data and application architecture and replacing the database with a relational database. The agency needed a QA vendor to perform an independent and on-going review and analysis of the Refactoring system’s development and implementation. The replacement system had a critical install deadline to avoid additional seven-figure licensing fees on the mainframe.

The Greentree Group Solution

Greentree developed a Quality Management Plan for the project that included an overall project monitoring strategy to manage risks proactively. This approach produced immediate benefits. For example, the state agency had to continue maintaining the legacy system while the project team worked on the replacement system. Our team designed and implemented the process to ensure the project included impacts to the Refactoring project as part of the analysis performed for changes to the Legacy system. Thus we accounted for the detection of potential risks to the project cost, schedule, and performance.

The Greentree team also proactively identified and resolved issues in unit testing. Our experienced professionals analyzed the testing approach and scenarios well in advance and determined critical changes to the formal unit, system, and integration testing. The early recognition led to the development of new and additional test cases, which later provided the necessary validation that the system was ready to go live.

Results

Greentree partnered with the agency and the project team to proactively manage risks and prevent schedule slippage and other major issues throughout our support. The project team faced enormous schedule pressure due to the possibility of paying a significant subscription fee for a system that was scheduled to be retired. Greentree’s guidance ensured a quality product was delivered to the state agency and the client counties who use the system. The Refactoring Project successfully replaced a 30-year-old legacy system ahead of schedule. The new system not only saves taxpayer money, but it also streamlined all registration and titling activities.