Mercury Interactive Unveils Application Risk Management Model

📅 January 22, 2002 - Mercury Interactive (mercuryinteractive.co.uk), a provider of enterprise testing and application performance management solutions, today introduced its new Application Risk Management Model (ARMM). ARMM provides a framework for assessing a corporation's current quality control practices and guides an organisation through a series of incremental steps to maximise IT efficiency, increase application quality and minimise risk.

Comprised of best practices, practical recommendations, training, coaching,and expertise, ARMM is delivered in the form of new training courses andprofessional service offerings, as well as a Web-based portal that providesan introduction into the quality process and a self-assessment.
Delivered in a common language for both IT and C-level executives, MercuryInteractive says its ARMM guides an organisation through the decisionsneeded to make tradeoffs between application quality, time-to-market andrequired resources. Regardless of the software quality tools orimplementation partners employed, ARMM helps organisations answer questionssuch as "What metrics should I focus on?" and "How large should a QA teambe?"
"Today's economic climate dictates that companies require the absolute bestquality assurance processes for their critical business applications, and doit with as many of their existing resources as possible to staycompetitive," said Kathleen Quirk, senior analyst at Hurwitz Group. "Anassessment and planning process, such as Mercury Interactive's ApplicationRisk Management Model, allows organisations to increase the efficiency andeffectiveness of their testing, tuning and performance management process."
Since it is unrealistic to expect new development and testing procedures tobe implemented across an entire organisation at the same time, ARMM providesan incremental approach to improving quality. ARMM identifies the maturityof a given organisation and maps that maturity to one of the five "levels"described in the model. There are three main deliverables for ARMM forassessing current quality control activities within an organisation andimplementing processes to help a QA organisation move to the next level inthe model.
First, the Web portal provides a general introduction to the qualitypractices and procedures place that make up ARMM, and an online repositoryof resource materials. A guided self-assessment, designed to giveorganisations a snapshot of where their current practices and proceduresplace them in the model, will be accessible via the portal as well.Secondly, ARMM provides a series of training classes designed to help QAprofessionals tasked with building superior application quality assuranceprocesses learn skills that help them lower the risk associated withcustomer-facing applications. Finally, ARMM's professional servicescomponent, delivered by Mercury Interactive consultants, combines two keyservice areas, including:
Assessment & Planning - Mercury Interactive's consultants canconduct an onsite evaluation to rate how effective an organisation is withinthe five levels of ARMM. The consultants then provide a detailedimplementation plan to achieve the level of quality appropriate for theorganisation's application requirements and business objectives.Coaching & Mentoring - Mercury Interactive's consultants can provideongoing coaching and mentoring on implementing ARMM. Depending on the sizeof the plan and implementation, Mercury Interactive's professionals areavailable for a predetermined amount of time to assist an organisation withall facets of the model, from building effective QA teams to establishingmetrics for success.
Mercury Interactive's ARMM Web portal and online self-assessment areimmediately available at model.mercuryinteractive.com and can accessed at nocharge. The ARMM training classes and professional services are currentlyavailable with prices starting at $2,495 (US).