Process and Methodology

Today, IT organizations are maturing and calibrating their operations to be governable, harmonized, and adaptive. They are looking towards process as one of the mechanisms to achieve this end state. Noblestar supports organizations in defining, optimizing, and implementing critical processes with industry best practices applied to process in order to enrich business operations in a pragmatic and agile manner.

To ensure the success of our clients, we are driven by the application of the following guiding principals:

Develop a pragmatic process solution that is a best-fit for the client's business and culture.
Ensure the process is actionable and executable for not only use, but adoptability.
Design the process with adoption and integration feasibility.
Ensure the process has longevity beyond the engagement of Noblestar.

In today's industry, the success of process solutions fluctuate based on the experience and knowledge of the implementer; it is more of an art than an objective solution. What differentiates Noblestar is our focus on pragmatic and agile solutions defined and delivered with best practices for process definition and implementation. We combine the best of industry standards for a homogeneous and repeatable technique to ensure not only a pragmatic and agile methodologies solution, but one that has longevity.

We utilize a process assessment to understand your culture, risks and needs to ensure the process utilizes existing opportunities for quick wins and ease of adoption, and to ensure we are implementing more than just a tweaked vanilla solution.
We work with the executive and management team to plan and roadmap a process solution to align the process definition with the organization's strategic imperatives and tactical objectives.
We perform Business Analysis leveraging OMG's BPMN with process simulation via IBM's Web Sphere Business Modeler to identify inefficiencies prior to expensive implementation.
We utilize a form of Use Cases, referred to as Process Cases, in parallel with the BPMN to communicate and capture how the process will be utilized within the organization.
We leverage UML model-driven process engineering practices to understand the internal relationships of the process and the organizational synchronization between disparate processes.
We capture and manage the complexities of the process in IBM's Rational Method Composer enabling an Enterprise process management framework.
We integrate sound organizational change management by leveraging SEI's IDEAL Model and ADKAR, as needed, to facilitate process ownership across the organization.
We define a process usage model to ensure longevity and maturation of the process beyond the initial momentum and drivers.

Our best practices and guiding principals ensure the harmonization and management of process complexities such that silos are eliminated, mismatches are managed, dependencies are coordinated, and governance is not only non-intrusive but also sustainable. The end results are financial and operational returns resulting from improvements such as reduced inefficiencies, visibility of strategy and policy, and sustained governance on an enterprise scale.

So how can Noblestar help you?

Process Assessment, Planning, and Enablement Services

A key element of any process implementation is to assess the existing state, roadmap the delivery of the process, and provide supporting services to enable both a successful and lasting solution. While these services are typically bundled with an existing engagement, we do provide them in stand-alone service packages.

Process Assessment is performed to assess the state of process for one or more projects, a division or IT unit, or the entire IT Enterprise. Our goal is to provide an understanding of the risks and challenges, leveragability opportunities, and next steps.
Planning is performed where the process needs are identified, risks are mitigated, and a roadmap is generated for the definition, implementation, and maturation of process across an IT organization or IT Enterprise. Our goal is to help our client understand what needs to be done when, where, and how, underlined by measurable results demonstrating success and continued improvement.
Enablement is performed leveraging process maturity models such as SEI's IDEAL and the ADKAR, where the organization is prepared for the delivery and adoption of a defined process. The most successful results are ones where enablement is intertwined with the assessment, analysis, and definition of a new process.

IBM Rational Method Composer (RMC) Support Services

Noblestar has extensive experience and knowledge of RMC with several industry experts in the usage of the tool. Being the preferred delivery mechanism for process, we have developed deep expertise with the tool. Our services include:

RMC Workshops

We not only instruct but work with your process engineers in building their first process configuration. Our goal is to provide baseline instruction and enable staff to walk away with their first process model and configuration.

RMC Mentoring Services

We provide expertise in review and side-by-side mentoring with process engineering staff. Our goal is to transfer our knowledge and lessons learned to facilitate your staff's ability to utilize the tool efficiently and effectively.

RMC Expert Support Services

We provide one or more RMC experts to provide guidance, review existing RMC usage, work with RMC as part of the client team, and facilitate the architecting of processes within RMC. Our goal is to support your staff in the creation of complex, enterprise process frameworks that require an expert understanding of the tool to architect RMC's OO-based process framework to best meet your needs.

RMC Usage Proof of Concept

We provide RMC experts to work with your organization to define and create a proof of concept for the usage of RMC to meet your organizational process needs.

Integration of IBM's Rational Unified Process (RUP) and ITIL

Noblestar has supported clients in the integration of RUP and ITIL by leveraging our expertise in both methodology frameworks. This may be performed with or without RMC. With RMC, we would provide expertise in providing deep process linkage between a RUP-like implementation of ITIL via IBM's Tivoli Unified Process.

Tailoring and Implementation of RUP

Noblestar has extensive experience in tailoring and implementing RUP from individual projects to organizations. Our implementation focuses on right-sizing RUP to meet the needs of the organization but also in defining how to utilize RUP in an agile fashion.

Tailoring and Implementation of ITIL with IBM's Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP)

Noblestar has worked with clients to tailor and implement the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) in a tool agnostic manner, with ITUP as the baseline process. Not only do we support the customization of ITUP to meet the client's ITIL needs but also work with the client to automate ITIL with their tool suite of choice.