SNA Software Releases New Project Integration Capabilities

Posted byNick PisanoPosted inBusiness Intelligence, Department of Defense, Government and Politics, Information Technology, Program Management, Project Management, Software, TechnologyTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SNA Software Releases New Project Integration Capabilities

Proteus and Envision Products Now Include Compatibility with Intaver’s RiskyProject, IBM’s DOORS, SNA MBSE, Digital Twin, and SAP’s Financial Data Management

Orlando-based SNA Software LLC announced a series of new pathbreaking releases to its core open-systems integrated project management software applications. These enhancements expand the scope of what constitutes integration in the domain of project management and are now in production at several government agencies.

Among the new capabilities is the incorporation of enhanced cost and schedule risk analysis combined with Intaver’s RiskyProject qualitative and quantitative risk analysis application. The new risk functionality uses open-systems data transformation processes to make project schedule data transparent using the industry and government PM standard IPMDAR schema. Open interfaces between RiskyProject and Proteus Envision allow for the utilization of neutral scheduling data to run both Joint Confidence Level (JCL) risk and Schedule and Cost Risk Analysis processes. The COTS visualization capabilities of Proteus Envision provides qualitative and quantitative time-phased and drill-down analytical capabilities into integrated risk analysis.

“Having the capability to capture and transform schedules into a neutral schedule format, regardless of source, removes proprietary barriers, thereby improving communication and understanding of the project,” said Chris Hassler, SNA’s NASA project lead. “Having the capabilities of RiskyProject and the analytics of Proteus Envision drives standardization and establishes a feedback loop that results in improved schedule quality, establishing a trusted source of project information.”

Another new feature introduced by SNA relates to the automation of systems engineering at the intersection of project and program management. These new capabilities provide automated visualization and analysis capabilities in areas that, up to the introduction of Proteus, were still guided by labor-intensive processes.

Capabilities in this area include the tracking and analysis of systems engineering submissions and changes; integration of technical performance measures that include measures of effectiveness (MOE), measures of performance (MOP), key performance parameters (KPPs), and technical performance measures (TPMs), with resulting impacts on project schedule, technical and cost; and Project Planning &Control (PP&C) data linked to overlays of components and systems in an early deployment of project-centric Digital Twin within a Completed Technology Dashboard.

The SNA Systems Engineering (SE) repository can be used as a stand-alone Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) system, or can be deployed as an advanced SE visualization and analysis systems that extends the functionality of IBM’s DOORS products. Compatibility with DOORS includes both data and images.

Matt Pitstick, Chief Technology Officer of SNA, remarked with the release of this capability: “we have worked hard to expand the scope of the possible in capturing the complete dataset related to project management. At the end of the day, technical performance and systems engineering define what is being built and the nature of what is deployed when it is built. We provide a window into this process that mainstreams it with the day-to-day work of project control and management, saving time, effort, and money.”

The third main enhancement released by SNA is a financial management capability that establishes a Sarbanes-Oxley-compliant interface with SAP Financial Data Management that processes a daily data capture and import into financial analysis, management, and reporting repositories with visualizations through Proteus Envision. This enhancement provides timely financial management information on budget execution and status essential to day-to-day management of projects, programs, and portfolios, eliminating the need for cumbersome ad hoc data extracts into spreadsheets and other limited toolsets.

Nicholas Pisano, CEO of SNA Software, had this to say in announcing the latest series of enhancements: “SNA has flown below the radar this past summer as we satisfy the needs and requirements of our customers—which is always our focus. We are also always careful to ensure that our new releases and enhancements are business-ready and user-proven before releasing them to the market as a whole. As such, our customers and the SNA team are very proud of these new capabilities.”

Mr. Pisano added, “SNA’s core vision from the start is to provide a holistic picture of project and program performance that makes these important efforts comprehensible to decision-makers: enhancements that not only expand the scope and quality of data made available, but also have a direct impact in saving time, effort, money, and in improving the business value of information. Our goal is to disrupt the traditional consultants, processes, and software providers in this market that continue to provide an environment where project failure in terms of cost overruns and schedule slippage are both a surprise and the norm. Failing upward should not be acceptable. Wherever there is a labor-intensive process, we seek to automate it to improve the value of the process and save money. Wherever essential information is siloed or sub-optimized, we seek to apply improvements that better derive its quality, importance, and business value.”

Please click here to learn more about SNA Software LLC. If you are a government employee and want to receive a white paper on three examples of Proteus realizing direct cost savings and improved data quality and value, click here.

Published by Nick Pisano

Mr. Pisano has over 30 years of extensive experience in the software, project, business and acquisition management fields in both government and private industry. He is a retired “mustang” U.S. Navy Commander having been assigned leadership positions of increasing responsibility throughout his military and civilian careers. He has served as a project management policy expert, government contracting officer, contract negotiator, as business manager for nine multi-billion dollar programs in NAVAIR, as a Chief Information Officer, and as a government program manager, aside from various assignments at sea and overseas. He is internationally recognized as the developer and co-developer of several project management techniques and methodologies integrating risk and technical performance, and in the establishment of the DoD policy and vision for an integrated digital environment. In recognition of his contributions in this field he was awarded the 1997 Acquisition Research Symposium David Acker Skill in Communications Award. While serving on active duty he also received numerous personal awards, citations and commendations. He completed his career on the staff of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology (OUSD(A&T)) where he developed new project management processes and participated in the development of acquisition policy. Since his Navy career Mr. Pisano has held senior positions in various high tech project management companies. Among those were as Senior Director of EPM Product Marketing at Deltek after a successful career as director of sales and marketing of C/S Solutions, Inc., a software company that developed and sold the wInsight and Risk+ products. In this latter position he advised and counted among his customers virtually every major A&D and federal support contractor; U.S. DoD, OMB, and federal agencies; and defense-related agencies in the U.K., Australia, and Japan. Mr. Pisano holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland (Honors), an M.S. from Pepperdine University, an M.A. from the Combat Studies Institute of the Army Command and General Staff College (Honors), and is a graduate of the senior executive program of the Colgate-Darden School of Business of the University of Virginia. He has also successfully attended advanced formal education in software engineering, project management, contracts law, and on the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). His articles have appeared in various acquisition and project management journals and publications, and his posts on major project management websites. He is an active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), a former board member of the College of Performance Management (CPM), is currently head of the National Defense Industrial Association Program Management Systems Committee (NDIA PMSC) Contracts Working Group, and a charter member of OSD’s PARCA advisory group..