Business support teams help the agency accept the solution and coordinate user acceptance testing. Business support teams work with end users to verify the solution throughout the development process, not just at the end. Business support teams help ensure continuous end user involvement and business validation. This includes recruitment, selection, and training of acceptance testers; subject matter expertise support for testers during test execution; and documentation and communication of acceptance testing results.

Transition and Post-Transition Support

Business support teams provide conversion/transition and post-transition support services to facilitate a smooth transition to the new solution. Business support teams work closely with the solution provider and agency technology teams to develop a conversion plan that identifies tasks required for a successful conversion of data from the existing to the target solution. This includes data cleanup and mapping along with a plan for parallel processing of data and for reconciliation to ensure that the data is accurately mapping to the next-generation solution. Business support teams help the agency oversee implementation of the conversion plan and assist with managing issues and risks.Business support teams also provide business unit help desk support during the transition period following go-live to help end users with questions and triage/funnel true technical issues to the technology provider. Business support teams coordinate with the technology provider to prioritize issues and track issue statuses, and provide information back to end users as needed until issues are resolved.

Domain Specific Data Analytics

Business support teams work with agency leadership to develop a data analytics framework to provide insight into agency mission and performance, operations, and risk. In conjunction with big technology projects, agencies frequently want analytics that will allow them to better understand the value they deliver to benefit recipients, increase their ability to explore, analyze, and justify policy scenarios, and to better understand and manage risk. Business solution teams develop business requirements specifications that agencies can incorporate as part of the solution, either in part or in whole. Like reporting, technology solution providers frequently overlook or underserve this area.

Key Personnel Experience Requirements

Personnel experience is the most significant factor for enabling successful advisory services. Successful business support teams should have hands on experience with, and understanding of, the agency’s mission, objectives of the technology implementation, and the perspectives and needs of the industry partners.

• Knowledge of the existing agency technology environment.
• Experience planning and successfully executing large conversions.
• Knowledge and experience with agency policies and processes.
• Experience writing and successfully achieving publication of federal regulations.
• Experience managing commercial software products.
• Knowledge and experience with agency system interfaces and the technology ecosystem.
• Experience working directly with service bureaus for data integration.
• Facilitation and stakeholder management expertise with teams of at least 50 team members.
• Experience writing and approving software requirements for large federal systems.
• Offsite planning and execution for user acceptance testing of agency specific systems.
• Prior experience implementing large numbers of industry partners at the agency.
• Prior experience rolling out servicing industry wide program changes on a national basis.
• Prior experience developing data and analytics software requirements through prototyping.
• Direct experience conducting system and user acceptance testing of domain specific data and analytics systems.