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How
do I know if I should hire Terrapin? |
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The
first answer is that you are a manager or executive at a software
development organization and you have one or more projects
that have funding but no development resources. In this case,
Terrapin can come in as a pre-formed team and deliver instant
momentum to a project that previously was going nowhere. Our
role can range from initial conceptualization to architecture
planning to requirements gathering and analysis to design,
all the way to development and deployment readiness. You may
also have projects under way that are failing to progress
according to schedule and budget. We are very good at taking
challenging projects and making great things happen.
The second answer lies in a close examination of your software
development operation. Are you spending a substantial amount
of money on a development organization, more than $5 million
annually? If so, are you comfortable that you are getting
the results from that investment that you should be? Does
your development staff ooze confidence and competence, or
do they ooze excuses, delays and overruns? Are you comfortable
that you are keeping up with the progress made by today's
world class development organizations?
Last, out of your overall development budget, what percentage
do you expect to pay toward making the organization run more
smoothly, more efficiently? These are questions only you can
answer. At Terrapin, we can help companies achieve substantial
improvement in their software development efficiency. The
investment you make in our services will be returned quickly
through the productivity and software quality gains that you
realize. |
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What
is the range of your industry experience? |
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Terrapin
has experience in a broad range of industries including:
- Health Care
- Oil and Gas
- Electric and gas utilities
- Hotel reservations
- Telephony
- Cable television billing
- Financial
- Credit card
- Customer care
A complete listing of Terrapin's experience and background
is available on our Professional
Credentials page. |
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What
technologies do you utilize? |
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The
founders of Terrapin each cut their teeth in the Unix, client-server,
open systems world. Accordingly, they each work in languages
such as C, C++, Java and Perl. They know how to maximize relational
databases such as Oracle, Informix, Sybase and Ingres. They
have exposure to all the major flavors of Unix. Notably, they
have unique strength in the area of transactional middleware
(i.e., Tuxedo) and multi-tier architectures. This has
been recognized by BEA systems as evidenced by their decision
to invite Terrapin to become a BEA Authorized Services Provider.
In recent years, Terrapin has focused on developing architectures
that support massively parallel operation across highly distributed
execution environments.
There is a complete list of platforms where we have experience
on our professional credentials page.
One particular area of expertise is maximizing throughput
in an Oracle Parallel Server/Tuxedo/IBM SP/2 environment.
A complete listing of Terrapin's experience and background
is available on our Professional
Credentials page. |
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Do
you do proof of concept work? |
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Yes.
Terrapin understands the need to correctly deploy technology.
Often times, organizations that are adopting new technology
struggle to deploy that technology correctly. A change of
technology, such as the adoption of BEA Tuxedo as a transaction
oriented middleware solution, also involves changes to a number
of other components of the development and deployment environment.
In addition, successful deployment of a technology such as
Tuxedo requires an application architecture and infrastructure
built around its strengths. Terrapin is well positioned to
help client companies understand these broader changes and
issues.
One particularly effective strategy for integrating a new
technology into an organization is to conduct a proof-of-concept
project. During this project, Terrapin will work with the
client's own staff to determine how the technology fits within
the existing development environment. Terrapin will also be
able to mentor the client staff as to the correct usage of
the technology. The result will not only be a concept level
application, but the demonstration that deployable solutions
are possible with the new technology. By keeping the client
company as close to their existing application development
environment as possible, their comfort level and acceptance
of the new technology is enhanced. The result is a satisfied
client, as well as a much greater satisfaction level with
the new technology and a higher likely hood that the new technology
will be retained and deployed. |
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What
roles can you fill for your clients? |
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Our
broad range of experience at Terrapin allows us to fill a
number of roles. We can serve our clients as technical leads,
management leads, Tuxedo evangelists, mentors and many others.
In addition, our focus on practical software development strategies
allows us to help clients evaluate their overall development
environment. This evaluation can result in dramatic improvements
in development effectiveness, with corresponding improvements
in system deployment.
In addition, Terrapin can serve as a "pre-formed team"
for client development projects. Because of the technical
abilities we possess and the development strategies we utilize,
we are able to deliver deployable solutions and higher client
satisfaction.
More information is available on our Services
and Roles pages. |
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Do
you provide architecture consulting? |
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| Yes. We view the topics of architecture,
development infrastructure, application infrastructure
and development process as being interrelated parts of
a common whole. |
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Accordingly, Terrapin
architecture consulting takes on a broad range of issues
that effect the software development organization. By
understanding the interconnected nature of the three
primary factors of software development success, Terrapin
is able to deliver architectural solutions that are
more deployable in the real world. This is the critical
difference that Terrapin delivers, and is also why we
are so effective at internal development efforts.
Architecture consulting is where the worlds of process
maturity and traditional development come together.
By maintaining a constant focus on developing deployable
solutions, Terrapin is able to achieve architectural
solutions that are developer friendly. The ability to
deploy starts with the ability to develop. |
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What
is the primary focus of your development strategy? |
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Deployment.
Terrapin understands that the decision to develop a complex
software system represents a tremendous risk to the client.
This industry has a bone yard filled with projects that were
started with high expectations but never made it to deployment.
Unfortunately, the benefits of a project are only realized when
successful deployment is achieved. Terrapin believes that a
practical focus on development strategies can have a dramatic
impact on the ability to turn a development opportunity into
a deployment opportunity. |
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Are
you SEI Capability Maturity Consultants? |
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No.
We do not believe that there is one single model of software
development that is appropriate for all companies at all times.
The CMM provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating core
aspects of a software development organization, and is a valuable
tool that can be used in the creation of a plan to improve the
effectiveness of the software development organization. Many
organizations, and in particular, project teams, need only focus
on selected aspects of the CMM. Our strength is to objectively
analyze current needs with our clients, and then to recommend
and implement an appropriate course of action selected from
industry best practices. |
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What
about ISO 9000? |
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Our activities
are complementary to ISO 9000 compliance. ISO 9000 is serving
a valuable role by encouraging companies to emphasize process
improvement in their activities. However, as with the SEI CMM,
we do not believe that ISO 9000 should be the sole goal of the
development organization. Instead, we believe the organization
should focus on practical solutions that result in deployable
solutions on time and with greater quality. In large measure,
this is compatible with ISO 9000, so a company that uses Terrapin
will also be well positioned for ISO 9000. |
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Why
is your website called "cycletime.com"? |
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The software
industry is notorious for the number of products and projects
that are delivered late and over budget or not at all. With
very few exceptions, the organizations that develop software
are ineffective when it comes to time-based competition (note
that Microsoft recently announced that the successor to Win95
is expected to be delayed by approximately 1 year). Paradoxically,
those actions that software development organizations most
often take in order to reduce development cycle times lead
to longer and more erratic schedules, higher cost, lower quality
and increased risk. Short-term gains are made at the expense
of sustainable results and long-term objectives.
At Terrapin Technologies, Inc., we understand the critical
nature of time-based competition in today's changing economy.
Improved development cycle time for our clients is one of
our core offerings. We emphasize this through the use of cycletime.com
for identification of our company on the internet. |
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Why
Terrapin? What does the turtle reference mean? |
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In Steven
Hawking's book A Brief History of Time, there is an
interesting story on the first page. A colleague of Hawking's
had just finished a presentation on astronomy at a local university.
He had covered such diverse topics as stellar evolution, the
mechanics of the solar system, etc. When he was done, he asked
for questions. An elderly woman stood and said "Well,
I think you have it all wrong! You are up there declaring
that the earth is rotating around the sun. That's not true!
In fact, the earth is sitting on top of a giant stack of turtles!"
Not yet completely flustered, the astronomer attempted a response:
"Ma'am, that is absurd! After all, what are the turtles
themselves standing on?" She replied "Young man,
you do not understand. It's turtles all the way down!"
We have always thought that was a clever story, and over
time it evolved into a metaphor for the difficulties that
development organizations are facing. Our focus is always
on finding the 'bottom turtle', which represents the core
problem of an organization. Without exception, we have found
that process-maturity problems are the 'bottom turtle'. This
then led to our logo, which we visualize as the 'bottom turtle',
struggling bravely with the weight of the world pressing down
on him. Our job is to give the bottom turtle some relief by
improving our clients software development effectiveness. |
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