Here is why AAC chose the Serena Development Process Management application to address its application development challenges.

1. RESULTS
CUSTOMER FOCUS
Detecting development
efficiencies
Advanced Acoustic Concepts accelerates time-to-market by
80 percent with Serena Development Process Management
CHALLENGE No detail is too small to be submerged in the To improve collaboration and productivity, AAC
creation of today’s submarine technology. needed a new solution to support exible, fast
Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC) plays an process development. “We looked at a free tool,
important role in the evolution of submersible but it lacked robust work ow and was di cult
vehicles with everything from sonar detection to customize, which could have led to high
and classi cation to torpedo defense—and hidden maintenance costs,” says Gerard Pinzone,
supports these activities with advanced distrib- senior manager and director of development for
uted training, software engineering, and more. AAC. “Since our processes evolve frequently, we
Capabilities in all of these areas are among the needed a way to visually create the work ow,
reasons this market leader has been selected as states, and transitions as well as make changes
a lead contractor for the U.S. Navy Surface Ship on the y to reduce expenses and maximize
Torpedo Defense program. development resources.”
AAC draws on the ingenuity of its sta to Pinzone also sought a solution to comply with
innovate new solutions, foster greater collabora- all matters associated with ISO 9001:2000 and
tion, and generate e ciencies in its already Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
PRODUCT top-performing workforce. However, a team certi cation. With comprehensive issue tracking,
distributed across the United States meant AAC could ease compliance between certi ca-
costly, cumbersome development processes tions, including weekly reports of all outstand-
that unnecessarily lengthened time-to-market. ing corrective and preventive actions, software
INDUSTRY
releases and status, build releases, and testing.
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2. Serena Development Process “Serena’s tools help
Management o ers multifaceted solution bring the theories of
AAC ultimately chose the Serena Development
Process Management application to address process improvement
its challenges. Once the application was in and quality into reality.”
place, however, the company found that it had
gained much more than a bug-tracking system.
“The Serena Development Process Manage-
ment application can bene t any process that
needs to be clearly de ned and tracked,” says
Pinzone. “This is a transformative technology.
The combination of feature-rich change request
management, visual prototyping, and exibility Consolidated system improves “We never could have thrown enough money or
allows us to serve the evolving needs of the e ciency by 50 percent time at a generic bug-tracking solution to get it
whole business.” By consolidating multiple departmental tools to to t our ISO needs,” says Pinzone. “The Serena
the single Serena Development Process Manage- Development Process Management application
With Serena, AAC has gained crucial e ectiveness ment application, AAC improved collaboration gives us the exibility to adapt our environment
in managing all aspects of application releases, and minimized miscommunication. Eliminating to meet compliance requirements—as a result,
issues and defects, incidents and escalation, and multiple logins and operating system incompat- an ISO 9001 auditor told us that it was one of the
change request management. First implemented ibilities has allowed the company to accelerate nicest calibration systems he’s ever seen.”
in the Independent Veri cation and Validation its development process and improve productiv-
(IV&V) department, the application is now ity. “For example, when a new piece of software Improved visibility and reporting
part of the fabric of the enterprise, involved in is developed, engineering and con guration saves management time
contract management, purchasing, hardware management baseline it, software developers By incorporating the Serena Development
operations, and program management. build it, IV&V tests it, and shipping packages it,” Process Management application into its IT
explains Pinzone. “The end-to-end collabora- environment, AAC has gained a newfound visibil-
Accelerated processes improve tion o ered by Serena has helped us achieve an ity across its infrastructure, improving business
time-to-market by 80 percent estimated 50 percent increase in e ciency.” decision making across the enterprise. “With a
The streamlined processes enabled by the Serena keystroke, I can generate a report for my boss on
Development Process Management application Improved issue tracking eases my progress or get my ISO report,” says Pinzone.
help AAC speed time-to-market to better support certi cation process “Prior to Serena, there was no traceability or vis-
its customers. “Serena gives us a development At the executive level, the Serena Development ibility into status. Now people no longer have to
advantage because our team can sit down for less Process Management application has provided go asking for information—they can see it live,
than an hour and have a working prototype that peace of mind that the company will be able to and the data is all in one place so we can report
is 80 to 90 percent complete,” says Pinzone. “As a achieve biannual ISO recerti cation easily—and across business groups.”
result of the e ciencies gained through Serena without excess work on behalf of AAC develop-
Development Process Management, our time-to- ers. For example, AAC was able to create a single Needless to say, the Serena Development Process
market is approximately 80 percent faster than if tool to monitor data for each part including a Management application is fundamental to
we didn’t have the application.” photo, serial number, part number, and more. Advanced Acoustic Concepts’ operations. “The
The Serena Development Process Management Serena application o ers signi cant savings with
And when processes need to change, Serena application has also allowed AAC to build in a complete focus on day-to-day operations, as
makes it easy. “It’s intuitive to customize the tool automated e ciencies. Alerts are sent out to the well as an ROI that is harder to quantify,” says
and evolve as we go,” says Pinzone. “We don’t appropriate users when an item is within 30 days Pinzone. “It is so integral to operations that we
have to hire a consultant to do the work, so of requiring calibration, and contracts, agree- don’t even think about it. We just know that the
adapting our system to business needs doesn’t ments, and proposals are automatically tracked business could not run without Serena.”
incur an extra cost.” to help ensure compliance.
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