C&A Services

C&A Clients | C&A Case Studies

Contacting C&A

The Short Version

Chambers and Associates is a software engineering consulting, contracting and training company that works out of Brisbane, Australia. We work all over Australia but we like to live here. The Brisbane area has the best surf in the world!

C&A was established in 1988 by Les Chambers, and electrical engineer educated at the University of Queensland. We've been very busy since then.

This page provides a summary of our generic services and details of case studies of work with our clients. We've arranged them by software development process. In the context of all these processes we either provide advice and training or actually do the work. Hot links to assignment case studies illustrate the roles we play.

The Detail

	Information Systems Strategic Planning Discovery of business objectives and goals Development of information technology strategies [Telepower, AWA]
	Software Quality Assurance Software quality system development. [Telstra, Health Insurance Commission] Standards development [Technology 1, Telstra] Software quality audit. [Mosaic, Foxboro, Telstra, Brisbane City Council] Automated static code analysis. [Mosaic, ATR] Quality management services [Telstra] Quality management training [standard course, QLD Primary Industries]
	Methodology Development Creation of development methodologies. [Telstra, QLD Transport, AWA]
	Project Management Consulting services [AWA] Project planning [Telstra] Independent software cost estimation (alias software quantity surveying) [Telstra] Project management services [Fisheries, Telstra, Elms] Project management training. C&A runs public and in-house courses.[standard course, RAAF, Mincom]
	Project Evaluation Independent evaluation of project status and directions. In the context of these assignments we establish if projects are meeting their objectives and provide recommendations for corrective action [IDP, Foxboro, Telstra, Brisbane City Council, Elms]
	Configuration Management Consulting on configuration management processes [Telstra] Development of configuration management support systems [Rockwell, Telstra]
	Requirements specification Requirements capture and specification [Telstra - AUTOCAT, Thompson Sintra, Rockwell, Fisheries, AWA] Management of requirements capture teams [Telstra - NPAMS] Requirements specification training. C&A runs public and in-house courses in requirements specification techniques [standard course, Health Insurance Commission, BHP IT]
	Architectural design Design of system architectures [Intranet, Telstra-AIMS]
	Testing Development of test plans Provision of testing services [Telstra-AIMS]
	Technical writing Preparation of system user manuals [Telstra-AIMS]
	Training courses C&A provides public and in-house courses. Click here for a summary. Detailed outlines: Managing Software Development Projects How to Implement a Software Quality Management System Specifying Software Requirements Modelling Software Requirements
	Training course design C&A provides training course design services either for the tailoring of our own public courses or for the development of custom course products. Our course development process focuses on developing specific competencies in trainees. Our development process has the following steps: Perform a job/task analysis Identify competencies required to complete a task Identify learning objectives Create learning units to meet those objectives Our course designs are documented in a course specification document and reviewed with the client prior to the development of learning units. Click here for a sample specification. Case study: [BHP IT]

C&A Clients

Telstra
BHP Information Technology
Foxboro, Leeds & Northrup
Rockwell Ship Systems
Thompson Sintra
Ingres Corp.
Prime Computer
AWA Defence & Aerospace
Department of Transport (QLD)
Brisbane City Council

Software Quality Association of QLD
Royal Australian Air Force
Mincom
Australian Technology Resources
Health Insurance Commission
Department of Social Security
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Queensland Electricity Commission
CSIRO
Australian Fisheries Service

Case Studies

Telstra Information Technology Group
Quality management. Contract quality management of a network provisioning system (NPAMS 2). C&A initially provided quality consulting services and ultimately provided a full time quality manager on long term contract for this 60 million dollar 9000 function point project. NPAMS 2 was developed with the Navigator information engineering methodology and implemented with Texas Instrument's Information Engineering Facility (IEF) CASE tool.

Configuration management. C&A specified a custom built configuration management support system (CMSS). The CMSS was responsible for management of 3000 project documents. A C&A engineer also assumed full responsibility for document control.

Project management. Over a period of 4 years C&A also provided project management and analysis team leadership services to NPAMS 2.

Requirements management. A C&A engineer managed the specification of requirements for NPAMS 2, coordinating a team of 6 subject matter experts.

Intranet Trading Company

Architectural design. Specification of the product features, conceptual architecture and project development plan for an intranet based trading system.

Telstra CAN Systems & Performance

Causal analysis. C&A traced the source of software defects identified in the integration testing of a multi million dollar software product and recommend software development process improvements.

Foxboro Leeds and Northrup

Project evaluation. C&A evaluated a 3 million dollar supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system development project employing object oriented techniques. We assessed the effectiveness of the project's quality management system and design processes and provided suggestions for improvement.

Telstra Commercial & Consumer Information Technology Division (C&CIT)

Requirements specification. Specification of requirements for automatic configuration of telephone exchanges (AUTOCAT Project). AUTOCAT’s mission is to accept service orders from an order entry system, interpret their switch configuration requirements and automatically reconfigure the target switch. C&A engineers developed the Automatic Category Changes System Requirements Specification for C&CIT. This was a technically challenging assignment requiring 7 man months of requirements engineering culminating in a 50,000 word Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document. Our engineers worked with Telstra’s C&CIT and Switching Support staff to document and validate the complex requirements of this system. The SRS was developed in compliance with the IEEE Std 830 Guide for Software Requirements Specifications. Data flow diagramming and finite state modeling techniques were used in concert with the EASY CASE computer aided software engineering tool.

Mincom

Project management training. Presentation of in-house project management training programmes. C&A provided training for 50 team leaders over a period of three years.

BHP Information Technology

Requirements specification training. C&A performed a training needs analysis and tailored our public course to suit BHP IT staff.

Telstra Network Management

Architectural design of a work management system for exchange maintenance groups (AIMS Project). AIMS is a 5000 user transaction processing system employing a client server architecture. The system also features automated interfaces to other Telstra fault management systems and radio pager and fax networks. It is implemented with Visual Basic PC clients and an ENCINA/Oracle/UNIX server platform. C&A provided architectural design services to this project.

Testing services. C&A provided test engineers for AIMS and other real time systems projects (ECM and ACCADS). Our people developed test plans, specifications and test cases for these technically demanding systems. In the cases of AIMS and ECM we also performed the testing task. Our test documentation complied with the IEEE Std 829 Standard for Software Test Documentation.

Requirements specification training. C&A provided client training in requirements specification and project and quality management.

Quality management. C&A engineers developed standards for project plans, software requirements specifications, software design descriptions and test plans. They also quality controlled project documentation and performed static code analysis and software reliability assessment.

Methodology development. C&A developed a methodology for effective management of telecommunications oriented systems integration projects.

Project planning. C&A facilitated the planning of several projects. Our services included assistance with development of Project and Configuration Management Plans and Work Breakdown Structures. Our project plans are compliant with the IEEE Std 1058.1 Standard for Software Project Management Plans. C&A employs Microsoft Project for Windows as our core WBS development tool.

Vendor evaluation. Under contract to Telstra C&A performed an AS 3563 audit of Mosaic Electronics' software development processes. Mosaic is a communications company developing ISDN related hardware and software products with Telstra funding.

Static code analysis. C&A engineers analysed the quality of Mosaic Electronics’ code with our automated static analysis tools.

Telstra National Switching Support

Project estimating. Our task was to produce an independent estimate for the development of an X.25 Network Mediator system that was to go to open tender. The mission of the Mediator was to provide a means for remote users to configure AXE and ARE-11 telephone exchanges via the X.25 network. Our estimate was used by the client in tender evaluation. Using a Telstra developed requirements specification as a basis, C&A engineers produced a conceptual design and a project Work Breakdown Structure. The estimate was based on a C&A cost model employing line of code estimates and complexity and productivity factors. The estimate was cross checked with Barry Boehm’s COCOMO model.

International Development Program of Australian Universities and Colleges Ltd (IDP) - Canberra

Conduct of a project review. The objectives of the review were to:

Establish traceability of stated requirements to proposed technical solutions
Evaluate the suitability of the proposed architectural solutions and propose alternatives if applicable.
Provide a checklist of issues to be addressed
Recommend a strategy to select a system architecture and achieve a workable solution and project completion.

Telepower

Strategic planning. Facilitation of telecommunications strategic planning for the NSW State Government private telecommunications network.

Health Insurance Commission (Canberra)

Requirements training. Training of 100 analysts and end users in requirements capture techniques.

Quality management consulting. Consulting support for the implementation of a software quality management system.

Australian Technology Resources

Provision of "C" language code analysis services:

Automated analysis of 250 "C" language programs for complexity using T.J. McCabe's cyclomatic complexity metric.
Manual sampling and inspection of code for compliance with recognised good practice.
Preparation of a Code Analysis Report drawing conclusions from the metrics in terms of quality attributes such as understandability maintainability, testability and reliability.

RAAF

Project management training. Presentation of in-house project management training programmes.

Brisbane City Council

Audit. Project audit of the Brisbane City Council’s BIMAP digital mapping system.

Technology 1

Standards development. Development of a coding standard for the Ingres relational database fourth generation language facility.

Department of Primary Industries (QLD)

Quality management training. Provision of in-house software quality management training to the information systems group.

Software Quality Association of Queensland

Training services. Development and delivery of course modules addressing strategic planning for software quality.

AWA - Defence and Aerospace Division

Methodology development. Development of project management methodologies consistent with the requirements for cost schedule control (C/SCS) specified by US Department of Defence Instruction 7000.2.

Requirements engineering. Development of a Software Requirements Specification (SRS) for a project management information system. C&A also developed a relational data base prototype to validate the SRS.

Costing system development. Design and development of a project costing system implementing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) method of project estimating. The system was then deployed to support the development of an estimate for the Rommance Digital Radio tender.

Rockwell Ship Systems

Software requirements engineering. Development of a software requirements specification for a Configuration Management Support System (CMSS) to be implemented on the Royal Navy submarine combat system contract. C&A also developed a CMSS prototype to aid user understanding.

AWA Project Services

Strategic planning. Development of a strategic plan for the management of project information in AWA's billion dollar Jindalee Operational Radar Network tender response. C&A also developed a cost estimate and implementation plan.

Australian Fisheries Service

Project management services. Preparation of project plans and WBS based manpower estimates. Provision of project management services.

Requirements engineering. Development of a software requirements specification for a Fishing Boat Licensing System.

Thompson Sintra Pacific

Requirements engineering. Development of a software requirements specification for a project control system.

Department of Transport - Queensland

Methodology development. Development of a methodology for effective management of technology based research projects.

Elms Learning Management Systems

Project evaluation. Conduct of a project evaluation to establish the effectiveness of software development techniques.

Project management services. Project management of the development of a learning management software product.