Success Stories
Web and Internet Services include a broad range of business solutions and support using the capabilities of the web and Internet; design, develop, test, implement and maintain web sites, portals, web applications and web services and the associated hardware, software, network and security components that comprise these solutions.
Background:
Our client was tasked with maintaining a high performance level of work designing, developing, and implementing a government agency website that tracked the movement of nuclear materials around the world. Candidates needed to be fluent in the English language and ability to perform the role as an editor to an enterprise web site, consisting of multiple customers’ content. Individuals were expected to take responsibility for the content, appearance, functionality, and effectiveness of the Web site, and to ensure that it conforms to a clear policy agreed upon by the agency.
Services Provided:
For the last six years, ATR has provided, and continues to provide web design, development, and support candidates to Lockheed/Force 3. Job responsibilities including placing candidates in the following areas: Content Management Support Analyst, Website Designer, SharePoint Architect, Sr. Website Designer, Sr. Website Designer, Web Designer, Web Content Manager . Each position required exceptional written and oral communication skills, the ability to interface with the customer to identify and obtain clarity and/or resolution of issues, and a with minimum of 3 years experience in managing web content, site design, and editing. In addition, individuals had to be detail-oriented and possess the ability to take complex technical issues and communicate them in a simplified view to ensure reader understanding. They needed to show the ability to work independently without supervision, but also in the context of a collaborative team environment.
In Addition, each candidate displayed the:
- Ability to prioritize and plan work to meet competing schedules
- Knowledge of Web Accessibility Standards and their implementation
- Understanding of Information Mapping (how to divide content into manageable, succinct blocks of text for displaying in a browser)
- Ability to coordinate changes to complex web projects that span multiple Web sub-sites
- Experience in web page design, with an understanding of web usability.
- Thorough knowledge of government style guidance as defined by the GPO Style Manual, and the Chicago Manual of Style
- Ability to communicate and coordinate effectively with people at various levels of responsibility.
- US Citizenship required
Key Skills:
- HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript
- Macromedia DreamWeaver
- WordPerfect (Corel 8 or greater)
- Microsoft Office Suite, specifically Word
Desirable Skills:
- Expertise in other Web technologies
- Cold Fusion, SSI, Servlets, Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop
- Adobe Acrobat
- Web Content Management Systems (CMS)
Education:
- B.A. or certificate in Web Design/Development, or a related field, or five years of experience in lieu of a degree
Objectives Met:
ATR has and continues to be one of the top providers to Lockheed/Force 3 on the NRC Contract. All of the candidates supplied by ATR successfully completed their contract period, within budget, and 100% of them converted to a direct position as an employee with Lockheed or Force 3. Because of the nature of the work being done by the contract, the NRC requires an extensive 6-7 week background investigation prior to an individual being able to start. ATR maintained close contact with these candidates throughout the background investigation period, and made sure that each individual was successfully delivered on time to the contract once the investigation was completed. If the first candidate had not met the mark, then Lockheed would not have hired six additional candidates in the last three years to support their web design, development, and support activities.
Software Engineering services entail the full life cycle of a software system development. Process definition; requirements management (project planning, quality assurance, project tracking and oversight, organizational process focus); software metrics; software process assessments; software capability evaluations; software project management; software certification; software validation and verification; open systems; software architecture; software reengineering; software reuse; component based software; software security; supervising software configuration management; and CASE tools.
Background:
Grants.gov, available through www.grants.gov, provides a one-stop electronic portal where potential grant recipients can find and apply for Federal grant opportunities. The program is supported by all 26 of the major Federal grant-making agencies, with The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the managing partner. The system provides the capability for granting organizations to post descriptions of grant opportunities along with electronic grant application packages, and to download completed grant applications. It provides the capability for applicants to search grant opportunities, register to receive notices of new opportunities, download application packages, complete applications off-line, and securely upload completed applications. Upon receipt of the application, Grants.gov sends an electronic acknowledgement to the applicant and delivers the application to the agency. The system provides these functions through both a Web-based graphical user interface and a Web-services-based system-to-system interface. Since October 2003, all 26 grant-making agencies have posted their discretionary funding opportunities on Grants.gov. For the period of October 2007- August 2008 over 420 discretionary grant opportunities have been posted. Additionally, over 440 application packages have been posted and approximately 190,000 electronic applications have been received from applicants. Grants.gov sends over 1 million email notifications per week at the public's request, and receives over 1.2 million page views.
Services Provided:
Since February 2007 ATR has provided, and continues to provide system architecture, system expertise, operations management, development, and testing personnel to support the project. All personnel are directed and managed by a General Dynamics IT Program Manager
Objectives Met:
As a direct result of ATR personnel support, General Dynamics IT has successfully performed all tasks required under their contract including redevelopment of Grants.gov, forms migration from PureEdge to Adobe, system to system development, system enhancements, authentication with ORC & eAuth, form & schema development, operations and maintenance including hosting services, provisioning for all Grants.gov applicants and agency users, maintaining and supporting all system to system implementations with Grants.gov.
Systems Management and Maintenance services include: Data Center Technical Support/Operations, and Help Desk. At the State’s discretion, these services may be required to be provided externally to the requesting agency.
Background:
The Application Systems Management (ASM) Division of the Department of Information Technology supports more than 6,000 customers distributed across various agencies. ASM, and specifically the area that Mr. McKenna supports, is currently responsible for the support and maintenance of statewide applications such as the Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS), R*STARS, and ADPICS. This support entails application, system, and program level assistance, including but not limited to; user interface, problem identification, analysis, optimum solution recommendations, testing, and interfacing with Statewide accounting and purchasing systems. R*STARS, and ADPICS are legacy applications, and are considered mission critical to the State.
Services Provided:
Since October 2004 ATR has provided, and continues to provide technical assistance services to end users across various agencies in support of the ADPICS and R*STARS applications. Personnel are directed and managed by a BearingPoint Project Manager.
Objectives Met:
As a direct result of ATR personnel support, supporting State of Maryland FMIS Statewide Applications ADPICS and R*STARS completed the following:
- Developed user manuals, system design documentation and functional specifications for application enhancements.
- Provided end user training/support via phone to customers to assist in their procurement and accounting tasks in both the purchasing (ADPICS) and financial (R*STARS) software packages for both Tiers (Level II) and (Level III) Remedy Tickets. Since October 2004 have closed/completed assignments on over 500 Remedy Tickets.
- Assigned by DOIT to assist General Accounting Division of the Comptroller’s Office personnel in identifying their requirements and/or problems while on site on a weekly basis.
The IT Management Consulting Services include any of the following types of services: IT enterprise architecture, systems review for architectural consistency, strategic planning assistance, project management services, Master Contractor assessments and risk assessment analysis.
Background:
Our client was tasked with maintaining a high performance level of work designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining a series of government applications that tracked the movement of nuclear materials around the world. As the client assumed the role for supporting more and more programs related to these applications, it became apparent that a greater need existing for the coordination and accurate costing of time and material for each of these programs.
Services Provided:
Cost Schedule Analysts and Project Controllers were brought on to perform the following services:
- Sets up cost control system, monitors and controls costs and schedules on contracts requiring validated cost schedule control system.
- Perform analyses and prepares reports in order to ensure that contracts are within negotiated and agreed-upon parameters and government cost control guidelines.
- Prepare budgets and schedules for contract work and performs and/or assists in financial analyses such as funding profiles, sales outlook, and variance analysis.
- Prepare program plans to ensure program requirements and statement of work are captured and scheduled.
- Perform schedule risk assessments to identify and mitigate program cost and scheduling risks.
- Ensure adequate funding availability by maintaining accurate records of expenditures, directing preparation of expenditure projections, and submitting timely requests for additional funding to the government.
- Incorporate contractual changes into control systems by staying aware of outstanding work against each contract in order to maintain realistic contract cost and schedule baselines.
- General Set up of cost control system, monitors and controls costs and schedules on contracts requiring validated cost schedule control system.
- Create statuses and analyze project plans in MS Project with MS Enterprise Project Management Solution.
- Provide direct one-on-one guidance and shares expertise in creating and managing project plans with project manager and task leaders using MS EPM.
- Use various project management methodology/program control techniques and industry accepted tools to perform contract tasks, including MS Project, MS Excel, Rational Project Console, etc.
- Participate in and/or prepares necessary program-related presentations to customer and project personnel.
- Coordinate the project planning activities of project personnel and facilitates communication as appropriate to all involved stakeholders.
- Establish appropriate key success indicators and manage trade-offs between scope, quality, time and cost.
- Track and report progress including realistic forecasts of final target positions.
- Document, obtain approval, and track all changes in project parameters documenting all risks, obstacles, and potential delays.
- Coordinate all of the project plans and activities from the different verticals assuring that they successfully operate in one cohesive master plan.
- Knowledge of Windows SharePoint Services administration helpful. Works under the direction of the Project Manager.
- Knowledge of Earned Value Management (EVM) and the ability to use MS Project to perform EVM reporting.
Objectives Met:
Since providing a consultant to satisfy the first request for a Cost Schedule Analyst, who has since become the team lead, ATR has performed at a high level to provide candidates to the NRC Project at target rates and in a timely manner, eventually filling four additional slots with no turnover over the last three years. ATR has and continues to be one of the top providers to Lockheed on the NRC Contract. All of the candidates supplied by ATR successfully completed their contract period, within budget, and 100% of them converted to a direct position as an employee with Lockheed. Because of the nature of the work being done by the contract, the NRC requires an extensive 6-7 week background investigation prior to an individual being able to start. ATR maintained close contact with these candidates throughout the background investigation period, and made sure that each individual was successfully delivered on time to the contract once the investigation was completed. Lockheed continues to request the support of ATR as new requirements for project cost control personnel come up, and has indicated on numerous occasions that we are the ‘go-to’ agency for key resources.
Business Process Consulting Services streamlines business processes, and the development, implementation and support of process improvements to eliminate redundancy; increase productivity and reduce cost.
Background:
The Cirdan group engaged us to support them with a project with the State Board of Elections to provide Business Process Development, Re-engineering, and Improvement in an IT support environment and with organizational business processes. It required the following skill sets:
- 3 to 5 years of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and Business Process Improvement (BPI) experience
- Fundamental understanding of Project Management principles and concepts
- Excellent communication (written, verbal, and non verbal) skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills
Services Provided:
Our consultant develop business requirements and business process reengineering methodologies. Solve application and process related problems by creating detailed process and system design specifications; and work among business units to support a total solution approach. Communicate business requirements for reports and applications development. Facilitate collaboration within and among business units and IT functions. Resolve problems and improve technical environments. Using performance standards provided by SBE assist in performing quality assurance on Contract SBE-2002-01, evaluating performance of the contractor, and in reporting results in writing to the Contract Manager.
Objectives Met:
The individual we provided was successful in leveraging existing documentation to assess, refine, and update the following Core Voting System Program business processes:
- All Processes necessary to support the Election Cycle
- Independent Validation &Verification (IV&V) Process
- Software Acceptance Processes, including User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Voting Systems Maintenance Plan (full lifecycle support)
- Incident Management Plan
- Problem Management Plan
- Service Level Management Plan, (Including Service Level Agreements -SLA)
- Configuration Management Plan (Inventory and Asset management)
- Change Management Plan (IT Change Management not organizational)
Description –Develop and/or maintain the following types of documentation: system documentation; user manuals; computer operations and program maintenance manuals; plans for training, testing, quality assurance, and contingency operations; and backup, recovery and restart procedures; technical writing for proposals, presentations, standard operating procedures (SOP), policies and procedures.
Background:
The National Archives provides advice and guidance to records managers across central government. This covers the entire life cycle of public records, in whatever format, from creation through to destruction or transfer to the National Archives. This work is undertaken in the National Archives by the Records Management Department. The Records Management Department (RMD) provides advice and guidance to government departments and other public record bodies on the management of records, and their selection and transfer to The National Archives. The AERIC and AMIS systems are ongoing programs at the National Archives in College Park, Md.
Services Provided:
ATR has provided, and continues to provide technical writing and editing for project life cycle documentation. Documentation includes system development life cycle (SDLC) materials such as Task Order Management Plans, Requirements Documents, Design Documents, User's Manuals, System Administrator's Manual, Test Plans, and Project Meeting Minutes.
Objectives Met:
Our technical writer works with technical staff to deliver high quality project documentation that follows CMMI ML3 assessed processes and procedures. He provides regular status reports of his activity, and continues to provide superior service to our client’s client.





