QSMA’s Featured SLIM User…MISYS Healthcare Systems

The SLIM (Software Lifecycle Management) Suite is unquestionably the most flexible, powerful and adaptive of major benchmarking/estimating tools and has been time-tested since 1978 in business, technical, and government projects. SLIM’s users range from the world’s financial powerhouses to the most advanced labs producing sophisticated microcode but all share one thing: the need to more effectively control the development of critical software applications.

For more than 25 years, Misys Healthcare Systems (a division of Misys plc, encompassing Physician Systems, Acute Care and Homecare) has developed, provided and supported services and software to help medical professionals more easily manage their IT infrastructure across their many specialties.

Their clientele includes more than 110,000 physicians in 18,000 practice locations, 1,200 hospitals and hundreds of home car providers and related organizations. With more than 2,600 and the large number of clients served, they develop a very large amount of software. And it has to be on time, on budget and fully functional. And, by the way, it needs to be defect free. A tall order….

Misys uses SLIM to measure applications development productivity, reliably estimate projects at early planning stages and accurately forecast the end date for projects that are in-flight. Through a combination of SLIM tools and expert assistance, QSMA has worked with Misys team leads and collected data on several completed and in-flight projects. Productivity was benchmarked for these projects totaling nearly 1-million lines of code and representing an investment of over $11 million dollars. QSMA compared the speed, effort/cost, and quality levels achieved against industry trendlines in the SLIM-Metrics database of over 7,000 projects (which include medical IT). Results were documented and presented to the team members and to the Misys managers in charge of the initiative.

Based on these findings, Misys targeted specific areas for process improvements, and measured the positive effects of its management decisions. This baseline established a “current state” against which “future states” could be compared (much like lab results for medical patients, a nice bit of practical synergy). Templates are now in place for ongoing and systematic measurement.

In addition, QSMA helped Misys create several estimates using SLIM for projects that were in early planning phases. Sizing templates were established that now enable Misys to readily scope project functionality, which is seamlessly utilized by SLIM. The by-products of the productivity baseline was calibrated for even more precise project estimation and control.

The results of the most recent engagement provided a jumpstart toward establishing the baseline and estimation/control templates using an initial set of projects, and helped clarify, among other things, the fiscal implications of the development environment.

As a result, Misys used the SLIM-Control model and their own templates to establish an initial base of institutional skills, build individual skills and provide in-flight measurement for those projects in the initial data set, tracked to successful completion. As those projects were completed, they were logged in Misys’ SLIM-Metrics database. These and other completed projects are now used to estimate the deadlines, project scope, and the mix of domestic and offshore IT professionals for new projects. These Misys guides will in effect served as “Project Office” procedures, and are designed to codify the skill-sets that Misys managers acquired.

(Misys Healthcare Systems carefully limits the use of its logos and trademarks. No other company may use the Misys logo, company name, product or service names without express written permission from the company's Marketing Department.  For information on Misys Healthcare Systems' trademark and logo usage guidelines, please contact the Marketing Department at (800) 334-8534).