Warren S. Reid,
Managing Director of WSR
Consulting Group, LLC, is listed as an expert in
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WSR Consulting Group, LLC Celebrating 24 Years as Consultants/Expert Witnesses in IT & Software Project Failure
WSR Consulting Group, LLC: Leading Experts & Expert Witnesses in IT Failure Matters
WSR Consulting Group, LLC is a global expert services and consulting firm that specializes in providing independent expert analysis and reports, expert testimony, and strategic case advice in disputes involving large-scale IT projects, systems and software failure claims.
We have worked on over 100 such matters in the past 25 years with plaintiffs and defendants, Fortune 1000 corporations, government agencies, customers of all kinds and in numerous industries, and prominent IT software vendors, developers, OEMs and integrators around the world. We have experience in testifying in: U.S. State & Federal Courts; the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; international forums; and arbitration and mediation.
We continue to share and teach our knowledge and experience to lawyers, law school students, IT executives and managers, and/or graduate school systems and software engineers at Southwestern Law School, the University of Southern California, and at major industry forums and conferences. We cover the following areas, among others: IT system risk, success and failure factors; evolving software development life cycle methodologies (SDLCs); strong systems development, implementation, and operations project management practices; managing customer expectations; eliciting, documenting, and managing system requirements and metrics; the RFP process; and IT contracting for systems software development, implementation, maintenance, outsourcing, training, documentation, data center expansion and more.
Our system platform expertise is extremely broad and deep covering, among other things: POS systems, robotics and smart buildings, n-tier systems, web-based ERP systems, e-commerce platforms and cloud computing.
We have been designated as experts in many industries including: manufacturing, wholesale & distribution; retail; restaurant/hospitality; grocery; e-business; hotels, casinos, gaming, lotteries and ticketing; healthcare and HIPAA; military; federal state, and local government; stock markets; and PCI industries.
We have also testified or been designated as experts in matters where our expertise proved crucial and where we transferred our knowledge of systems engineering (hardware, netware, software life cycle), project estimation, product valuation, software marketing and markets, business, finance, ROI, business cases, Board of Directors planning activities, etc. into other type claims/cases such as:
Death row cases
IP valuation matters
Accuracy of Prospectus disclosures regarding:
ongoing ability to compete
likely success of new IT products and IT products in development
status of IT departments' organization, staffing size and talent, budgets, adherence to good IT standards and practices, and ability to produce quality software and operations and meet service level objectives
Misalignment of corporate business, marketing and IT strategies and contracts
Defining the meaning of "world-class systems" for the court
Using new, proprietary, tested, published, scientific models and formulas to determine mathematically the impact of each party's actions, indecisions, delayed or wrong decisions on system/ project costs, schedules, risks, ability to deliver per contracts
Overview of Services Provided
As Software Project Failure Expert Witnesses, we assist litigators in determining, simplifying, deciding and resolving the complex, challenging, and sometimes contradictory questions and issues that arise in IT-related disputes.
Below is a partial list of services available as part of our expert witness work:
Prepare, up front with counsel, a list of the specific questions and scope mandates we are to focus on, explore, research and testify on Update as necessary
Assist counsel with drafting discovery/production requests, and affidavits/declarations in support of specific motions
Interview percipient witness as required
Locate and pull together evidence that proves and/or disproves the case claims. Evaluate the performance of each party in carrying out their IT, technical and project responsibilities
Evaluate project plans, tasks, estimates, staffing quality, and management thereof
Evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of project status reports, communications, earned values, risk management and reporting and corrections/changes/escalations thereto
Evaluate the software engineering methods and development life cycles used, and deviations therefrom
Measure compliance with applicable industry standards and the impact of deviations therefrom (e.g., SDLC, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FAR, Mil-Specs, IEEE, PMBOK, SWEBOK, etc.)
Evaluate the "suitability" of the interim deliverables and the final delivered system
Prepare a qualitative and quantitative software defect/bugginess analysis
Assess root causes of requirements changes and evolution, and the impact of "scope creep" on project cost, schedule, and scope, and quality
Develop schedule delay & cost-to-complete analyses and opinions
Scientifically determine the impact of specific corporate or project decisions, software development cost drivers and scale factors, and IT industry trends on project cost, schedule and quality
Explain software development concepts and principles, IT jargon, terms and practices, and gauge contract compliance using IT industry definitions
Assist counsel in preparing for and reviewing opposing percipient & expert witness affidavits, reports, depositions and testimony
Write expert and rebuttal reports
Give depositions and testimony
What is Unique about Our Services
Retaining attorneys oftentimes credit their clients' victories in part to our:
Hiring the best professionals with over 25 years of relevant IT and industry experience/expertise
Authoritative knowledge of software development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies (We developed important parts of one of the most well-respected SDLC's used in the industry)
Integrating our professional experience as former lawyers, CIOs, CXOs, CSOs, IT consulting firm partners, test directors, systems designers and analysts, architecture engineers, programmers, data center managers, and project planners, estimators, and managers into the current case
Keeping counsel informed of status, next steps, issues and findings on a timely basis
Developing and using our proprietary methodologies/ models to analyze and opine on the:
"suitability" of IT project deliverables against "requirements" and contract obligations
causes and impact of IT/project decisions on project cost, schedule, risk, quality
real/relative "bugginess" of the delivered system; document discovery, and more
Requesting non-obvious and seemingly non-relevant documents which, based on our first-hand experience in similar disputes, can open up the whole case to new possibilities
Requiring a case-independent WSRcg QA Senior Manager to conduct our rigorous "internal challenge & examination reviews"
Rigorous focus on agreed-to case mandates and expert opinion areas
Engaging triers of fact with true, simple, persuasive narratives to help them render fair/accurate judgments
Balancing attention to detail with clients' financial realities and budgets
"Warren's knowledge of the computer software development process, and his ability to explain that process, both in scientific terms and jury terms, is unique... He has a great understanding of the dispute resolution process and the strategy which applies."
"Your ability to analyze and distill the complex issues surrounding the client's software testing process and computer system development were particularly valuable to me as a "non-techie."
"Determining a winning strategy is one of the most important elements of litigation, and your input in that regard was invaluable"
"We could not have achieved the very favorable result which occurred without your contributions to analysis, strategy, and presentation"
"[Warren] leaves no stone unturned in getting to the truth of what happened (and more importantly, what should have happened but didn't."
"[Warren's] small but specialized team does better, faster and more thorough work than even the largest consulting firms."
"Warren and the consultants at WSR Consulting Group, LLC are among the most thorough, well prepared, professional consultants with whom I have worked in 25 years of litigating technology cases."
"I unreservedly recommend them to anyone looking for the premier experts in planning a large scale computer system development or implementation project or rescuing one which has gone awry."
"When litigating computer system failure cases, the consultants at WSR Consulting are our expert of choice."
"Warren and his team were tireless, dedicated and extremely smart"
"Warren thoroughly understood, simplified, and explained the complex technical and business issues in the case to counsel and the jury, and listened as well as he taught, which was very well indeed."
Teaching Testimonials for Warren S. Reid (USC graduate school classes)
"He brings his unique, refreshing, and practical experience and expertise forward through engaging anecdotal stories, lessons learned"
"[Warren's] "Four IT Success Models" make the classes and materials alive and relevant."
"His distinctive ways of looking at things are well tested, proven, known and praised in the academic, industry and professional communities because they WORK!!"
"...students and faculty are excited and ready to learn when they hear Warren is coming to lecture."
Each of our experts has between 25-35 years of relevant Information Technology (IT) experience. WSR Consulting Group, LLC ("WSRcg") is engaged by clients and counsel in three related, but distinct, capacities shown below. WSRcg expert witnesses have been engaged in litigation matters in North America, Asia and Europe.
1. Software Project Failure Expert Witnesses
As Software Project Failure Expert Witnesses, WSRcg professionals work in two IT arenas.
Large-scale systems failures:
In this practice area, our expert witnesses work to uncover, analyze and opine on the root causes of failure of systems already in production. As required, we may investigate and review, among other things:
any and all of the components and resources needed for production system success for ERP, client-server, SAAS, cloud, e-commerce, and internet systems including:
software, hardware and networks;
people, staffing, operations, user readiness, training, budgeting and other human resource issues;
help desk and error reporting, collection, analysis, repair,
systems, integration and regression testing and acceptance/approval, test harnesses and tools, QA regimen(s), and loading fixed code into production processes;
the fix, maintenance, and upgrade processes; the "upgradability of the system";
underlying quality of the architecture, design, coding, testing, and documentation of the system
interfaces between components;
the quality of the converted data,
the performance, flexibility, evolvability, scalability, and usability of the system
the "bugginess" and latent defect score of the system
the alignment of staff configuration & organization with the "flow" of the system
specialized systems and related specialized peripheral devices such as, among others: automated warehouses, smart buildings and robotics; Point of Sales (POS) systems; medical/hospital systems, COWs, medical devices; gaming systems; ticketing systems, smart and other peripheral device interfaces.
Large-systems project failures:
In this practice area, our expert witnesses work to uncover, analyze and opine on the root causes of failure of systems projects either in progress or stopped because of alleged failure. Such matters are typically characterized by large systems being built, configured, customized and/or installed for a customer, or for a general release by a software vendor.
Our areas of focus go past the critical areas of reviewing and opining on the quality of the deliverables, the suitability of the delivered integrated system and components, the material compliance (or not) against agreed to functional and non- functional requirements, industry standards and "implied requirements", and the IT industry meaning of certain contract terms in the context of the dispute. Importantly, and based upon our extensive and successful experience as (1) software developers, (2) large ERP and computer systems project managers and (3) as expert witnesses in similar types of disputes, we also consider and concentrate on the "workmanlike manner" in which the ERP, software, computer or internet projects were planned, carried out and managed.
This may include a thorough review, analysis, and evaluation of the:
contract and statement of work requirements, responsibilities, scope, estimates and tasks,
performance of roles, responsibilities and appropriate tasks by properly assigned and available skilled staff,
enforced use of appropriate project & risk management tools, methods and metrics,
appropriate selection of, adherence to and deviations from good system development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies, industry standards and best practices, and appropriate metrics to uncover, report and escalate "real" project progress, status and issues:
impact of specific facts, actions, inactions, and decisions taken by each party on the project's cost, schedule, quality, completeness, risks, and readiness for go-live (that meet the Daubert and Frye standards).
Together, all of the areas listed above invariably lead to the underlying causes of why a project and the delivered system came in late, over budget, under-performing, missing requirements, of poor quality, missing stakeholder expectations etc.
Using our scientific, industry-accepted models to quantify the impacts of party actions and decision on project cost, schedule, and product quality (under development)
As Information Technology (IT) Consultants, our professionals have been responsible for creating, interfacing, implementing, operating, maintaining and/or upgrading hundreds of systems in over 15 industries for companies, systems and IT departments of all sizes.
We assist clients in: turning around runaway ERP, software, computer and internet projects; assessing their long term needs; aligning their IT plans with strategic business plans; organizing and staffing their IT functions; valuing their software, intellectual capital and intellectual property (IP); and acting as the "IT conscious of the Board of Directors", among other things.
As Software Intellectual Property Expert Witnesses, WSRcg professionals provide expert testimony in high-tech and IT Intellectual Property (IP) matters: i.e., evaluating, analyzing the appropriate documents, testimonies and criteria for determining whether and to what degree IP has been infringed, misappropriated, or stolen.
We use special forensic tools when needed and provide forensic services, when warranted, (such as code comparisons, recreating “lost or erased” data, comparing sequence, organization, structure, and "footprints", etc.) through managed sub-contractors in disputes involving: copyright infringement; trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement and idea theft.
Warren S. Reid Joins COCOMO III Work Study Group by Invitation
While attending and contributing to this year's 29th International CoCoMo (Constructive Cost Model) Symposium, in Los Angeles, Warren was inspired by the quality of thought and knowledge transfer of the CoCoMo Affiliates as well as the new ideas being put forth regarding IT estimates.
Warren asked Professor Barry Boehm, the inventor of the CoCoMo models, if he could attend the next CoCoMo III Work Study Group meeting. The Group is charged with developing the next iteration of CoCoMo estimating models and tools to meet the new challenges, technologies, needs and opportunities in IT. After accepting Prof. Boehm's invitation, Warren attended a meeting and has since been invited to join the Study Group. His contribution to the Group will focus on his knowledge, experience and expertise in the use of earlier CoCoMo and other estimation models in IT failure lawsuits in America and abroad, valuing reusable software development artifacts, and in reviewing and/or preparing software development estimates for new commercial projects and Technology Committees of Boards of Directors.
November 2014:
Warren S. Reid shares his experience in "Beating the Odds: How to Build and Implement Successful Software Systems.
This printable three-page document is the cornerstone of a PhD class in Software and Systems Engineering which Mr. Reid taught in October at the University of Southern California.
June 2014:
Warren S. Reid gives testimony re the impact of unagreed-to system requirements & designs, and the arbitrary elimination of proper test schedules and regimen.
In this dispute, Mr. Reid testified on behalf of the software integrator where there was a difficult customer that could not make up its mind as to what it wanted, required and must have in its initial release because it appears it was hoping to get everything, under a fixed fee contract, in its first release. The customer’s refusal to sign-off on systems requirement designs put the industry experienced/successful integrator at risk, delaying the project schedule.
Then, once the customer mandated a surprise, out-of-thin-air, politically favorable Go-Live date (that was less than 20% of the schedule the Integrator believed it had to finish the coding and testing of the system) without deferring certain requirements, accepting work-arounds for the first 6-12 months, or accepting very increased risks typically resulting in either a failed system, or a system with a very difficult post-Go-Live Settling Period plagued with numerous Emergency System Fixes/Releases. The Integrator had to rely on its own IT industry and domain experience to get the system implemented by the new Go-Live date, and reliably running in the first 12-18 months post Go-Live. The Integrator maintained and operated the system for a few years for the Customer but the Customer refused to pay a substantial portion of the system development, maintenance or operations costs claiming the system was not what was bargained for.
Mr. Reid’s opinion is that the integrator delivered a reliable, auditable, maintainable system that met IT industry and industry domain requirements under the circumstances, and the material requirements that the customer would/did sign-off on. Using its expertise and a Core System that the Integrator developed and used in similar projects as the system base, the Integrator developed, delivered, installed, and operated a system that materially complied with the features, functional and non-functional requirements of the anticipated system. Yes, there were some preferences, metrics and lesser needs the customer had hoped for but wouldn’t approve or modify when asked. And yes, the Integrator either couldn’t always guess what the Customer's preferences were, or there was not enough time to implement them before go-live, or they in fact were delivered – just not in the way the customer hoped for.
Now, several years later, the customer still refuses to pay huge sums for the system and its operating costs absorbed by the integrator even though the customer has enjoyed the benefits the system since Go-Live. The contract between the parties was terminated and the parties will have their “day in court” in 2014.
April 2014:
Warren S. Reid presents "Six Critical Systems and Software Development Essentials that Continue to Evade IT Executives, Managers & Professionals"
Warren S. Reid’s presentations and topics are based on his research, consulting experience and expert witness work worldwide in IT development and IT legal matters that he believes every IT professional and counsel should know! He has guest lectured at USC’s Undergraduate and Graduate Schools of Computer and Software Engineering for 7 years and at Southwestern Law School for 6 years. He always brings real stories, real experiences and tangible practicality, tools, recommendations to his audiences from all over the world that can be put to immediate use.
Context: With The Standish Research Group reporting over the last 20 years that, on average, only 30% of all systems projects are successful (on time, on budget, with relatively full functionality) , 40% are challenged (not on time, over budget; missing functionality) and 30% fail outright (aborted, never implemented, shut down shortly after implementation) the IT industry cannot brag that it is doing things right, and doing the right things! Warren will tackle 6 fundamental skill areas that continue to confound systems projects of all types and create failure or very difficult challenges – and tell you how to spot it, evaluate it, address with it and PREVENT it in the future!.
The areas of learning cover:
1. Estimation: A conversion of art, science, and experience that must be adjusted over time. Function Points, Source Lines of Code, Feature Points, Delphi, Historical Metrics, Breadbox, Bottom Up, Top Down? Which is "right" for you? 2. Requirements: Getting this wrong almost guarantees system and software “failure” 3. Testing: What is a successful test program? Why so many tests? How do you know you’re “Done?” 4. Contracting: It’s all about allocating risk -- and your lawyer cannot do it alone, not by a long shot! 5. Outsourcing: An almost 50% failure rate! Little cost savings! What’s going on and how can you do? 6. SDLC Selection: Waterfall? Spiral? Increment Commitment Spiral? Agile? – “Taking Smartcuts NOT Shortcuts”
March 2014:
Warren S. Reid presents "Strategizing and Drafting Computer Contracts that Really Work!"
Warren S. Reid’s presentations and topics are based on his 40 plus years of research, consulting experience, software development, project management, contract negotiations, and expert witness work worldwide. He believes good contracts can only be drafted by a team of lawyers, CXOs, Project Managers, and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Quality Assurance managers. He has guest lectured at USC’s Undergraduate and Graduate Schools of Computer and Software Engineering for 7 years and at Southwestern Law School over a period of 6 years on this and similar topics. He always brings real stories, real experiences and tangible practicality, tools, recommendations to his audiences that can be put to immediate use.
Context: With The Standish Research Group reporting over the last 20 years that, on average, only 30% of all systems projects are successful (on time, on budget, with relatively full functionality), 40% are challenged (not on time, over budget; missing functionality) and 30% fail outright (aborted, never implemented, shut down shortly after implementation), the IT industry cannot brag that it is doing things right, and doing the right things! Warren will tackle the fundamental skill areas that (1) continue to confound attorneys drafting IT and Software Contracts for systems projects of all types, and (2) create failure or very difficult challenges.
He will present a roadmap and refer to his own cases on how to "Build a 'Living Contract'" that properly:
• Allocates risks and responsibilities
• Identifies deliverables and their required quality
• Addresses costs and payments and signoffs -- and what they mean
• Sets critical milestone dates
• Identifies processes for sign-offs and escalation; and in-and-out of scope determination
• Defines quality, sustainability/maintainability requirements
• Covers performance service level metrics
• Addresses staffing quality, quantity, expertise, experience, turnover, staff replacement
• Advocates automated tools usage throughout the life cycle of the project, and much more.
He will instruct you on the best practices on how to make your Computer Systems Development Contracts support the attainment of and the balance of: project risks, costs, schedule, scope of functionality, quality, and stakeholder expectations!
November 2013 -- Jan 2014:
Warren S. Reid gives testimony re proper SDLC methods and deviations and scientific project estimate alternatives in a large-scale system dispute.
Mr. Reid spent more than 1 week in deposition and rebuttal testimony in a large-scale system dispute at the request of counsel for the Customer. The Developer/Integrator is countersuing the customer.
Here, Mr. Reid testified on the typical domino effect this project exhibited starting with a:
• Bait & Switch from exceptional IT professionals to unqualified management and staff, who then created an
• Unrealistic, underestimated project plan and unattainable project schedule, which forced
• Short cuts to be taken arbitrarily during the critical requirements elicitation, resulting in
• Incomplete, ambiguous, inconsistent, untestable functional requirements that omitted critical end-to-end business requirements, which caused
• Poor designs and design documents to be written which relied on those requirements, leading to
• Poor coding and unreliable and incomplete unit testing, leading to the
• Promotion of unready/unfinished requirements, design, code, unit tests, interface tests, integration tests, security tests to the next phases of development and testing, causing a
• Never ending series of system test cycles unearthing unacceptably numerous requirements defects that should have been detected/fixed in earlier reviews/tests for orders-of-magnitude less effort & time, and which was further undermined by
• No automated regression testing suite for this new, custom system with millions of lines of effective source code.
The integrator could not reliably estimate date for completion with the required resouces. In fact, it didn't even know where the project stood and the project status. The Integrator made classic systems development project errors and tried to fix them by creating ad-hoc practices which only made the system worse and the project further behind.Like the recent Obamacare system debacle, this case is yet another example of what has been going on too much and for too long in IT -- that could be avoided!
Importantly, Mr. Reid was asked to develop estimates to complete under different going forward alternatives. He introduced and both supported and criticized the SDLC process promised to be used in this project vs. what actually was executed. He configured certain industry practices and metrics in new ways to estimate how long this large and complex project would take to deliver, and the associated risks, if the project were to be:
• Left bumbling along as it had been for the past many years using its current processes, staffing, Quality Assurance, and management organization
• Developed from scratch
• Transformed into a high-quality, materially compliant, maintainable, production-ready system based on the “value of the reusable/salvageable artifacts and components”
• Based on using an ERP system approach.
Using industry supported SEER and COCOMO II models, and his own experience in developing estimating models for a Big-4 consulting firm, Mr. Reid oversaw and/or developed estimated costs & schedules needed to finish and implement the system under each of these 4 alternatives. He calculated reuse value of artifacts already completed -- some at 90% and others at 0%. He estimated the project assuming the project’s use of different automated tools, process maturity levels, staff quality and experience (i.e., management, analyst, programmer, application, and platform experience), both dynamic and static testing approaches/staffing/tools used, staff turnover, team cohesion, architecture/risk resolution, compressed deadlines, system complexity, reliability required, documentation requirements, and more. He testified that using Function Points as a basic measure of program/system size is fine if done correctly, BUT that Function Point size can only be turned into usable effort, cost and schedule estimates after numerous cost multipliers and scale factors similar to the ones listed above are applied to the Function Point count.
March & April 2013
During March & April 2013, Warren S. Reid lectured at USC Graduate School of Systems & Software Engineering and at the Southwestern Law School in the following areas of his expertise:
April 2013: Warren S. Reid presented “The Critical Roles of Attorneys AND Systems Professionals in creating Successful IT Contracts” at Southwestern Law School.
March & April 2013: Warren S. Reid presented “12 Business, Management & Technology Knowledge Areas Every USC IT Engineering Student Should Know!”
October 2012:
Aligning Business & IT Strategy: Helping Achieve Corporate & IT Success!
New Coursework for Fall 2012 “CS510 - Software Management & Economics” class:
By Warren S. Reid
This semester, Warren S. Reid tackles the very difficult question of “How Do You Align Business and IT Strategy!"
How can we best use and invest in ever-changing information technology to achieve the long-term business goals and strategies of the company -- whether to improve financial performance, increase market share or stock prices, reduce operational expenses & working capital – or getting the right information into the right hands, at the right time to help make better informed, short- and long-term decisions.
Unfortunately, today, very few IT execs & managers play substantive roles in the strategic business planning process – and vice versa – typically causing disappointing results, executive and IT firings, and even company bankruptcy.
This workshop will be presented over 3 successive classroom sessions:
Session 1: Warren takes participants through a universal business planning model – useful for lemonade stands, SMBs, and large multi-national corporations
Session 2: participants evaluate available ERP, best-of-breed, in-house, outsourced development & operations options to select an IT strategic alternative that most meets business strategy – sustainably.
Session 3: participants learn how to develop/make trade-offs to their strategic IT alternatives/plan so that it is "properly" aligned with the long-term business plan (and within budgets, “doable timeframes”, resource ramp-up realities, etc.).
After 3 sessions, each active participant will have struggled with, reviewed, and/or refined some of the key methods, models, recommendations, alternatives/trade-offs, thinking required, negotiation tips, etc. to meaningfully participate and contribute to developing successful and aligned Strategic Business and IT plans for his/her organization
May 2012:
A Glowing Recommendation for Warren S. Reid from USC on Linkedin.com
Following is a recommendation that Warren S. Reid received from Dr.Supannika ("Sue") Koolmanojwong, PhD, on May 1, 2012:
“As a lecturer of the graduate-level software engineering class and software management and economics class at University of Southern California, Warren is our regular invited guest lecturer. Students love to hear his informative stories about IT updates, tips and tricks in software engineering world, new trends in software business, and how to apply various theories in to the reality... His presentation skill is exceptional. His knowledge is vast and comprehensive. I would love to invite him any day. He is one of the best guest lectures that we have..."
August 2011:
Warren S. Reid testified as an expert witness in a complex software dispute at an international arbitration in London. The verdict is pending.
Testimony included:
(1) What makes a system “world class”? What makes software world class?
(2) What are the “industry best practices” re the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?
(3) What makes training and systems documentation “best in class”?
(4) What were the underlying root causes of alleged system and software functional and performance deficiencies? Which party was responsible for them? What caused them? How could they have been avoided/addressed?
(5) IT industry practiceseducation for judges and juries.
(a) Customer responsibility in selecting enterprise software? (knowing its requirements)
(b) Vendor responsibility in representing its software and capabilities? (understanding customer requirements/metrics; help customer make tradeoffs, explore alternatives; refuse to make certain changes to the system; lead a GAP analysis)
(c) Making realistic estimates; tracking progress; not falling into trap that adding more project staff increases project/individual productivity in a linear fashion (“Mythical Man Month”)
(d) Managing scope creep in a project with a tight timeframe and unmovable delivery date.
(e) Many functional requirements can be/are subjective and changing
(f) The difference between an RFI, and RFP, and an agreed to list of functional deliverables by Product Release.
(g) System and software performance, capabilities (e.g., maintainability; architecture; GUI; auditability; scalability; fault tolerance; etc.), and industry standards are objective and measurable
(h) All systems have bugs! All bugs are not equal! It is possible to estimate the average and “best in class” latent defects (including bugs), by severity level, that will likely be delivered/introduced into production.
June 2011:
WSR Consulting Group, LLC assists U.S. Department of Justice in winning favorable settlement against IT integrator in Federal Anti-Kickback Law matter. Case involved billions of dollars or hardware, software and systems acquisition planning, development, implementation, project management and IT operations outsourcing services.
Regarding this litigation, we opined on:
(1) The roles played by systems integrators in large-scale software development and implementation projects;
(2) The roles the defendant integrator played in five large Federal Government Agency contracts/projects;
(3) The project events/decision points, and resulting integrator recommendations/advice influencing specific vendor hardware/software/netware component selection that the integrator maintained alliance agreements with;
(4) The extent the integrator was influenced (consciously or unconsciously) to purchase more, different, and/or unproven state-of-the-art components/resources; shorten the delivery schedule for such hardware/software/netware components; recommend/ alter system components not warranted by the merits of the project/circumstances
(5) The extent to which the integrator created, planned, and executed policies, procedures and organizational structures to manage and collect "vendor influence payments" from alliance vendors.
Accenture Settles Lawsuit with U.S. Department of Justice (GovWin.com)
Excerpt: NEW YORK; Sept. 12, 2011 Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today announced that it has agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a lawsuit originally filed in 2006 (United States ex rel. Norman Rille and Neal Roberts v. Accenture LLP) for $63.68 million. The lawsuit claimed that, in work for the U.S. federal government, Accenture received payments, resale revenue or other benefits through alliance agreements with technology vendors that were not sufficiently disclosed and that were not allowed
WSR Consulting Group, LLC specializes in the areas of: Computer Failure and Software Failure Litigation and Expert Witness Testimony • Computer Crisis & Software Project Turnaround and Information Technology Consulting • Technology & Software Intellectual Property Disputes & Misappropriation • Internet litigation. We provide computer expert witnesses, expert deposition and expert testimony. Our computer and software experts and consultants specialize in: computer system and software analysis • software project management & estimation • software project quality assurance • computer software selection • system and software requirements gathering & design • software development & coding • computer system and software testing & defect management • data base, data warehouse & file conversions • computer system and software implementation, go-live and maintenance activities • computer system and software failure analysis and root causes. These services are performed for Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP ) systems, CRM systems, manufacturing and distribution systems and software, commercial applications, POS (Point Of Sale) systems, ticketing systems, government and military systems and software, Payment Card Industry (PCI-DSS), Cloud-Computing architectures, MIS based systems and more. We have been designated and/or testified as computer failure experts, software failure experts, system failure experts, ERP failure experts, ERP system experts, software project failure experts, system development life cycle (SDLC) methodology experts, software implementation methodology experts, systems integration methodology experts, software testing and acceptance experts, IT contract interpretation experts (from technical and industry practice standpoints), software project management experts, software and systems development & maintenance estimation experts, system valuation and software company valuation experts, and IP experts in U.S., Canadian, Asian, and European courts.
Very deep and strong experience in assessing, selecting, implementing, maintaining and assessing and SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards,,Retek, Cerner and i2 ERP systems (including multiple generations and versions; e.g., SAP R/3 and MySAP.com).
WSR Consulting Group, LLC consultants have been employed in following capacities/engagements: computer expert witness, computer software expert, computer system failure, computer software expert witness, software testing expert, software failure expert, software development expert witness, computer failure expert, software valuation expert witness, software project expert witness, software project failure litigation, project management expert witness, project management forensics expert witness, software design and architecture expert witness, software and hardware performance experts, project manager, trade secret expert witness, professional liability, unfair competition, illegal kickbacks in government contracts, copyright infringement, arbitration, litigation, mediation, due diligence investigations, computer technology expert witness, technology expert witness, internet expert witness, e-commerce expert, technical architecture expert witness, HIPAA and PCI-DSS technical infrastructure expert, ERP expert witness, CRM. expert witness, information technology expert, information technology outsourcing expert, computer outsourcing expert, software outsourcing expert, IT and Outsourcing Contracts expert
WSR Consulting Group, LLC provides expert analysis re: software project estimates, computer project staffing, quality, mix and number of project team skills, software project management and progress reporting • Organizational Change Management (OCM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR (BPR) necessitated by a new system or software • Compliance with applicable commercial and industry standards & methodology (including PMBOK, SWEBOK, IEEE, ISO-9000, Mil-Spec standards, METHOD/1, Big-4 standards, HIPAA and PCI-DSS standards) • Expert in Systems Development/Systems Engineering Methodologies: (Waterfall, Spiral, Evolutionary Prototyping, Code and Fix, Staged delivery, COTS, AGILE Methods including Scrum, eXtreme Programming, Test Driven Development (TDD), DSDM and more • cost-to-complete analysis • software defect management systems • system, performance and functional testing, and tuning • scope creep and scope change analysis • schedule delay analysis • IT best practices consultants use of best practices, consulting industry standards, consultants software development methodologies • consultants' ethics
WSR Consulting Group, LLC provides consulting and expert opinions regarding data centers including: (1) Data Center Management Consulting: selection, outsourcing, migration, monitoring tools, governance plans, staffing, required certifications, (2) Data Center Environment Consulting: power, HVAC/environmental controls, upgrades, infrastructure,(3) Data Center Operations Consulting: systems monitoring, job scheduling, storage management, technical support, training, documentation, help desk, disaster recovery, contingency plans, offsite hotspots, problem resolution priorities, (4) Data Center Asset Consulting: hardware, netware and software performance and scalability, architecture, policies, standards, procedures, replacement approach, maintenance, fault-tolerance, backup / recovery / restart, (5) Data Center Security Consulting: physical, information, personnel, applications and communications security, and (6) other provided Data Center Managed Services.
Summary of Vertical Industry Expertise
Manufacturing | Distribution (international, warehousing, transportation, logistics) | Financial Services (Insurance, Stock Exchange, Banking) | Restaurant & Fast Food Service (front/back office; Point of Sale - POS systems) | e-business (new economy, internet, web, B2B and B2C, Cloud Computing) | Gaming & Entertainment (LOTTO, lottery, casinos, concert/legitimate theatre subscription and ticketing systems) | Hospital/Healthcare systems/HIPAA | Insurance (marketing, policies, agent fees, claims, etc.) | Military (robotics, smart buildings, complex U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) systems) | Retail (all aspects including front/back office, POS, forecasting, merchandise planning) | Payment Card Industry (including PCI-DSS) | Software and high-tech | Telecommunications | Consumer Electronics | Law Enforcement | Energy, Oil & Gas | Government | Automotive | Membership Services | Publishing
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WSR Consulting Group, LLC is a global expert services and consulting firm that specializes in providing independent expert analysis and reports, expert testimony, and strategic case advice in disputes involving large-scale IT projects, systems and software failure claims. 
