Vendor Management Tools Increase Quality and Reduce Costs
Does your organization rely on outside vendors to develop or support applications?
How do you know if the software meets defined standards or principles?
Do vendor supplied applications frequently result in implementation problems?
Vendor management tools offer an automated analysis solution for assessing quality, determining productivity, and ensuring conformance to architecture standards. If your organization is not using vendor management tools, it is time to shed some light on what exactly is being delivered.
Automated Code Analysis: Insight beyond SLAs
Organizations outsourcing application development or maintenance tasks need a way to determine effort, productivity, and quality as these projects are completed. It has become all too common to rely on Service Level Agreements (SLA), which only focus on functional testing after a project enters production. These methods do not provide the necessary insight regarding the reliability, security, and stability of source code used to complete the new application or enhancement. As a result, organizations often experience these symptoms from situations where source code analysis is not performed:
- Poor Software Quality
- Missed or Delayed Deliverables
- Failure to Meet Defined Non-Function Requirements
- Increased Security Risks
- Locked-in, Insufficient Resources
- Disproportionate Technical Debt
- Increased Maintenance Time
- High Rework Rates
- Extended QA Schedules
Every organization has defined coding practices, architecture standards, and compliance measures that must be met to protect the company as a whole. Most companies find it increasingly difficult to monitor these items when development projects or completed by outside services. Vendor management tools offer a cost effective, repeatable method for evaluating this portion of IT within an organization.
Using Automated Vendor Management Tools to Bridge the Gap
Automated code analysis allows an organization to assess size, complexity, and quality of code delivered by vendors. Vendor management tools for automated code analysis allow an organization to determine the:
- Total Functional Size
- Change in Functional Size of Application
- Technical Complexity of Each Function
- Amount of Required Effort
- Delivered Application Quality
- Conformance to Architecture Standards
Furthermore, automated solutions provide a unique opportunity to identify code defects or vulnerabilities prior to implementation. This information provides an accurate view of how much value is supplied for each project by every utilized vendor. Vendor management tools are essential for monitoring the costs of outsourced development projects and making certain the right quality is received for more reliable implementations.
CAST Application Intelligence Platform (AIP) is an enterprise-driven solution for performing static code analysis on multiple languages in complex, multi-tier infrastructures. It delivers a benchmarking score for continuous monitoring as new projects or enhancements are completed. As a proven vendor management tool, AIP offers a cost effective, accurate, and objective analysis method that can be repeated as often as needed to ensure the utmost quality and conformance.
Click here to see how AIP can help you better manage vendor relationships.