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Ariel solves the most difficult Business
IT problems, specializing in world class enterprise
AJAX and mission critical project
management.
Staffing
Ariel recruits senior business and technology leaders to fill
key positions, both permanent and consulting. Ariel has access to an extensive network of world class talent through our
leadership in the Open Source movement and from high internal referral rates.
IT Business Strategy
Ariel's Business Process analysts use specific, proven
techniques to faciliate strategic planning, due diligence,
assessments, and organizational realignment. Instead of
voluminous documents or complex process models typically
produced by management consultants, Ariel consultants
generate results that are simple, concise, and actionable
through the use of Business Functional Analysis (BFA)
Project Management
Ariel has expertise in Agile IT strategies, stressing rapid incremental rollouts, allowing projects to start
generating ROI as quickly as possible. Ariel has successfully scaled Agile approaches to projects of extreme complexity
with teams exceeding 100. Ariel leverages Feature Driven Development (FDD) coupled with custom software and customer's existing infrastructure; this approach increase productivity while delivering
consistent and actionable metrics and "just
enough" traceability.
Enterprise Software Development
Ariel specializes in planning, staffing, technical
architecture, and management of large mission critical
technology solutions based on J2EE, dotNet, and LAMP
platforms. Ariel consultants have successfully delivered
software on all three platforms for projects up to $300M in
size.
Custom Software Tools
Ariel applies in-house R&D and custom toolkit development to solving client's needs. We specialize
in declarative, AJAX code
generation toolkits; we're also developing AJAX technology to improve
navigation and visualization of web pages on compact mobile
screens. Additional in-house focus areas include :
- ANT build frameworks
- Feature driven development (FDD) tools
- Resusable software asset repositories
- Zope and Python tools
Ariel Solves Business Problems
Ariel is an elite provider of consulting services and
value-added software products to Fortune 1000 companies within
the United States and internationally. Here are some typical
business problems that Ariel consultants are asked to solve:
-
How can I improve the efficiency of IT as an
organization? How can I do more with less?
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How can I make my peers understand that information
technology could be seen as an asset to be optimized,
rather than an expense to be controlled?
-
How do I choose among competing technologies? What
are the real issues? What will come back to bite me
later on?
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How can I change my IT organization to adapt to newer
technologies, newer systems engineering techniques, and
deliver new types of products? How do I get my
employees excited and productive using newer, more
efficient technologies?
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How can I reduce costs? How can I retire older legacy
systems?
-
How can I make better use of internet technologies?
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How can I reorganize my workflow and delegate
responsibilities so that I can concentrate more on the
important and strategic, and less on the short-term and
urgent?
-
How can I measure return on investment? How can I be
sure if a new system represents a sound investment? How
can I choose among competing projects?
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Build or buy? Assemble or customize? Insource or
outsource? Centralized or federated?
-
How can I get my project off the ground? Where do I
start?
-
How can I save my project that is significantly behind
schedule?
Ariel is distinguished from its competitors in the depth and
breadth of our consultants' experience. Our services include
advising on organizational realignment, business analysis,
software development, project management, business process
re-engineering, strategic and tactical leadership,
communication, and due diligence and auditing.
Ariel has created software products, components, and development
tools that can jump-start our clients' development efforts.
Ariel offers packages combining pre-built software with
mentoring, training, and other services for much shorter time to
market.
Ariel understands that, while technology can provide dramatic
efficiency gains and significant competitive advantage, a
complete solution to every business problem includes many
non-technical components as well.
Choosing A Technology Partner
Finding the right technology firm to partner with can be a
difficult, time consuming, even painful experience. The stakes
are high: competitive pressures, constant technology churn, and
the changing marketplace leave precious little margin for error.
How can you choose the right partner?
As a voluntary partnership of equals, Ariel is in a unique
position to answer this question. Finding the right partner is
not something to be undertaken lightly. The following are what
we consider the most important criteria:
- Intellect
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A deep, mature intellect is indicated by a
wide range of talents, a thirst for knowledge, a rapid and
continuing accumulation of new skills, and the courage to
challenge widely-held assumptions.
- Integrity
-
Integrity is paramount in words and actions.
In any partnership, trust is the most important commodity, and
the quickest to be lost if violated. Integrity requires
acknowledgment of one's limitations and mistakes, as well as
one's strengths and successes. Integrity means having the
courage of one's convictions.
- Taste
-
Taste governs how one does what one does. In
business, as in one's personal life, decisions involve a
selection among competing forces and trade-offs. A person's
taste often dictates how he chooses among alternatives,
whether they be alternative technologies, software
architectures, marketing strategies, or organizational
reporting hierarchies.
ARIEL TECHNOLOGY
33 ariel specializes in planning, staffing,
tech architecture, managment of large mission critical
technology solutions based on j2ee, .net, lamp
Ariel Partners continuously evolves and improves its services by
first understanding the forces that drive the use of information
technology. Relying on well-established principles, we select
from a catalog of best practices and resources to meet each
client's unique requirements.
Abstract
Understanding the client's unique situation is the first step
toward success. We begin every engagement by evaluating the
forces at work.
If there is one constant in today's business and technology
environment, it is change. The ability to respond to change in
a client's business, its requirements for technology, the
overall business climate, and new technologies are all
critical factors for success.
- Competitive Environment
-
Business drivers are (or should be) the main forces for
adopting new technology. Managers and technologists must
understand the relevant business environment and how it
is changing as they consider deploying new technology.
- Requirements
-
Requirements change over the course of every technology
project. Accepting, adapting to, and embracing changing
requirements is a prerequisite for success. How quickly
requirements change may determine the entire approach
(the "methodology") that a team uses to develop or
deploy a new business system.
- Technology
-
Everyone knows that technology is changing at sometimes
dizzying speed. Legacy computer systems become
"obsolete", new fashions appear, and occasionally
something fundamental emerges (such as the world-wide
web). Ariel Partners stays aware of the shifting
technical environment but remains prudent when adopting
new technologies.
Information technology must pay a return like any other
business investment. Where to invest, how much to invest, and
how quickly to expect results are critical factors that
require knowledge of the competitive environment.
Some key questions to ask for every project:
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What is the business objective for the new
system?
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Is there an estimate of the return on investment?
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Is the new system/application/service critical to the
business's mission?
-
Are competitors using similar technology? How are they
using it, and how have they fared?
-
How is the new technology meant to affect current business
processes? Do they stay the same, or is the technology
meant to force a new way of doing things?
-
What are the business constraints on time to market,
budget, quality, and scope?
Supportive executive sponsorship and a sound funding model are
critical factors in the success of technology
projects. Initiating a project includes establishing a sound
business case and gaining supportive sponsors and users.
Key questions:
-
Has responsible management produced or accepted a sound
business case for the engagement?
-
Is a single key executive with decision-making authority
reasonable for the project, and does the engagement have
that person's active support?
-
Does the proposed engagement have a clear, unambiguous
statement of vision, mission or purpose?
-
Do the engagement's business sponsors and users understand
and believe in the engagement's objectives?
-
Do likely team members believe in the engagement's
mission?
-
Are there clear, reliable and regular lines of
communication with the project's stakeholders (sponsor,
users, collaborators)?
-
Does the project have sufficient resources (time, tools,
trained personnel) to meet the client's requirements for
quality and scope?
See Steve McConnell's "Software Project Survival Guide" for a
more detailed treatment.
An engagement's technical environment has several aspects:
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available technical infrastructure: networks, servers,
operating systems, etc.;
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staff training and expertise;
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development environment: languages, version control
systems, debugging and bug-tracking tools, documentation
tools, planning and communication tools;
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corporate technical standards;
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the corporate technical vision.
From a technical point of view, it is important to understand
not only where the client is, but where the client intends to
be. Is the client moving from mainframe systems to distributed
object technology? Does the client want to web-enable its
workforce? Is it moving toward integrating off-the-shelf
software, or is it attempting to custom-build internal
applications based on commercial or open source frameworks?
Often a business's hardest problems are less technical than
organizational. How should it organize to deploy and use
technology? Every engagement takes place in the context of an
organization with it own history, culture, practices, and
morale - factors which may make or break a technology project.
Key questions:
-
Does the client's Information Technology Group have a good
working relationship with the business units, or has the
relationship been strained by past failures and
misunderstandings?
-
Does the client prefer to use its own personnel, or is it
in the habit of hiring consultants?
-
Is there a corporate culture of communication and
accountability?
-
Does the client prefer to internally build or adapt
technology, or does it prefer to outsource and buy
off-the-shelf software?
-
Does the client regard information technology as an
investment or an expense?
-
Does the client practice a robust development/delivery
methodology? Does the client understand the critical role
of a well-defined and disciplined software delivery
process?
The criticality of affected systems is a prime consideration
in planning and deploying any new technology. As Alistair
Cockburn notes in his "Crystal Methodologies", what is risked
by a system's failure determines how critical it is. Systems
that are not very critical risk only comfort or
convenience. More critical systems pose risks to discretionary
money or, more critically, essential money or organizational
continuity. The most critical systems are those whose failure
put lives at risk.
How critical a system is influences the nature and scope of
project documentation, the test procedures, and the kinds of
technology that can be safely deployed. The more critical the
project the more risk-adverse are management and development
teams - and the more care that must be taken at every stage of
production.
A project's size is one of the key determinants of its
success. Larger projects fail far more often than small
projects. Because of their greater risk, large projects
require more detailed and extensive management and are
necessarily less efficient than small projects. The same
development methods are not appropriate for both - it is as
much a mistake to extend techniques suitable only for small
teams to 200-person programs as it is to overburden a small
job with a heavyweight methodology. (See Alistair
Cockburn's article for a good discussion).
Abstract
Principles guide our response to the prevailing forces. Our
principles embody our values and summarize our experience.
It may seem obvious that when a business deploys information
technology, the business should benefit. But putting this
principle first and pursuing it relentlessly has far-reaching
consequences.
-
Projects should be undertaken based on anticipated return
on investment. Although difficult, initiating a project by
estimating return on investment is a valuable discipline
for setting priorities and schedules.
-
Project priorities should be determined as closely as
possible by business users or sponsors. Whatever planning
techniques are used, they must allow customers quickly to
change priorities and direction of a project with minimal
loss of previous work.
-
Understanding business requirements is paramount. There
must be high-quality communication between business users
and designers throughout a project's lifetime.
-
Business users must be the final arbiters of quality and
success and, as such, should be closely involved in the
development process.
Agile development methodologies such as
[http://www.controlchaos.com/manage.htm] Scrum emphasize
"business value driven software development."
Rather than fitting all projects to a rigid methodology, Ariel
consultants use risk identification and reduction techniques
to focus resources, which are always limited, on the most
critical risks first.
The future holds no certainties. No matter how carefully
planned, a project will not go as predicted. Planning to
reduce risk shifts the emphasis from trying to predict a
result to being prepared for the possibility that desired
results don't happen. Because risk combines elements of value
and likelihood, focusing on risk helps planners keep business
priorities and value foremost.
Most management techniques exist to reduce risk.
Document-intensive methodologies (useful for very large
projects) attempt to reduce risk of miscommunication and
personnel change by capturing information on paper. Testing
regimes reduce risks to product quality. Company picnics
reduce the risk of employee burnout. And so on.
However, each project has a different distribution of
risks. For one project, introducing leading-edge technology
may be the biggest risk. Another project might have an
extremely short time to market. Untrained staff might be the
foremost problem in a third. Planning to reduce risk tailors
management to each project's unique situation.
The Ariel Partners approach to communication, "Understand and
Verify," has application to every aspect of our
engagements. It starts with a thorough understanding of each
client's unique requirements and communication of that
understanding back to the client. But it continues throughout
the engagement.
When planning projects, we take care to establish and document
robust communication channels within and among teams. Testing
goes beyond the development shop, bringing business users into
the process of specifying functional tests and verifying their
success. We monitor every practice to insure that developers
understand customer requirements and that customers can verify
that they have been understood.
Risks increase with the size and scope of a project. Risks
increase with the length of a project. The best way to reduce
the risk of a large project is to 1) divide it into smaller,
shorter pieces, 2) do the most important parts first, and 3)
do as much in parallel as possible.
Long time intervals between deliveries are a huge project
risk. The business loses sight of progress, systems become
unresponsive to change, and developer morale deteriorates.
"Incremental Delivery" is a critical success factor for
technology projects and one of the key Ariel methods.
Although a well-managed large team can achieve more than a
small team, communication overhead makes large teams
considerably less efficient than small teams of equal skill. A
team of four experts is likely to be faster and produce a
higher quality result than a team of twelve average
developers. Whenever possible, projects should be broken down
into small, coherent teams with limited requirements for
communication among teams.
Integrity is our highest value. It entails honesty,
reliability, fairness and commitment to providing value to our
clients. Why should integrity be a principle of our engagement
methods? Because it informs every interaction with clients,
subcontractors, our clients' customers, and among ourselves.
Our clients rely on us to provide accurate and honest
assessments, whether the news is good or bad. We have no need
to polish our resumes at our customers' expense. Because we
are a small organization, we have no interest in padding
projects with unnecessary personnel. Our goal is to make
ourselves dispensable to our clients by leaving them with
products, tools, and teams that work.
Abstract
Whether you call them "techniques" or "methods", our catalog
of proven best practices is our intellectual tool chest. We
choose our tools carefully, by applying our principles in the
client's unique context of forces.
Abstract
Besides the many technologies we employ, we have favorite
authors, books, and articles that we use in our own practice
and recommend for further study.
Case Studies: Ariel consultants have solved problems
for Fortune 1000 companies in many industries, developing a
considerable body of experience that Ariel Partners brings to
bear on all of its engagements.
Financial Markets
Merrill Lynch
Design and development of AJAX
code generation technology for the Merrill Lynch global
financial website (MLOL).
Fidelity Capital Markets
Design and development of real-time, distributed financial
risk evaluation system and real-time market analysis trading
system.
Dow Jones
Business analysis; Technical Analysis trading system development.
Bank Boston
Project assessment; adaptation of mainframe legacy systems to
client/server architecture.
Government
Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) / SAIC
Post 9/11 Security : development of DNA analysis software,
involving architecture and agile project management and
mentoring.
Major Municipal Government / SAIC
Development of AJAX/web based
Time and Attendance and Workforce Management systems.
Facilitated a dramatic turnaround of a $100 Million/year multi-year project,
by applying technology ideas developed by Ariel's internal
R&D. Systems will support dozens of governmental agencies.
Insurance
American Re
Business process re-engineering supporting change of mission;
enterprise technical architecture; design and development of
shared network services; IT methodology development and
mentoring. Development of IT solutions for Global Risk
Clearance, Cost/Benefit Analysis to facilitate pricing, and
knowledge management solution for quickly assembling treaty
contract clauses
Publishing
Houghton-Mifflin
Major project assessment; mentoring development teams; design
and delivery of release management system.
Ariel Partners is seeking talented, motivated individuals to
fill key business and technology positions
Please send your resume and contact information to
recruiting@arielpartners.com
Permanent Positions
Consulting Positions
Internal Positions
Position Descriptions
Executive level position at prestigious downtown NYC
insurance/reinsurance company
Salary range: $70K - $140K
Some travel may be required
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Proven expertise in the identification of business issues,
proposal and execution of solutions through a
disciplined/organized approach.
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Provide a source of Operations and Systems expertise for
Reinsurance which can be tapped by the Home Office and
regions around the world
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Assist in implementation of the overall Reinsurance business
strategy for the Home Office and Regions
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Enable the overall change program for Reinsurance services
and ensure that change reflects the agreed business strategy
and projects remain true to objectives, timelines and
expected benefits
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Target and encourage innovation which will provide long
term potential for growth
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As business solutions project manager , work with the
Reinsurance management team, profit centers and
regions to prioritize and implement a portfolio of change
projects in support of the reinsurance business
strategy
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Initiate, analyze, and implement projects with both
operational and strategic focus using project management
tools and organized methodology.
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Drive home office projects from inception to completion
per stated objectives and schedule. Facilitate regional
projects to meet business objectives. Deliver projects per
objectives and schedule.
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Identify inefficiencies in processes and help improvise
through easy to understand flows and diagrams (ability to
model and map processes). Communicate in a clear, concise
fashion for the easy understanding of the business
/clients to get their buy in.
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Implementation through collaborative team work and
relationship management to ensure stakeholder management
by close interaction with senior executives and client
stakeholders.
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Manage cross functional resources, across geographies and
budget allocation for prioritized initiatives
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Staff projects including selecting and managing project
teams including dedicated team members, outside vendors,
and indirect project resources
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Build project plans, budgets and ensure appropriate
monitoring of progress, budgets and team members
-
Ensure Quality, Cost and Delivery metrics are accurately
on target as per the project scope, definition and
objectives.
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Write Business cases, proposals for funding, business
requirements documents and regular status updates in the
PMO tool and internal reporting
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Manage concurrent projects of varying sizes.
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Proven business acumen, ability to work in a matrix
organization, deep business, analytical, and project
management skills, proven interpersonal and communication
skills, and the ability to influence and persuade with
presence and authority. Good understanding of information
technology and good writing skills.
-
Enthusiastic, energetic, upbeat personality. Highly
motivated, self starter with a demonstrated history of
working across functions to get the job done.
-
Insurance experience (and in particular Reinsurance)
experience is a plus. Practical operational experience
including running a business unit or other operational
management is desired.
-
Understanding of general reinsurance processes including
financial processes, and reporting needs from a statutory
and GAAP perspective.
Flow charting, business analysis, systems analysis, process
mapping and business process re-engineering, financial
reporting , cost benefit analysis, user requirements, JAD
sessions, general project management skill sets, new
system/application development
Knowledgeable in the use of MS Access/Excel/word/Power Point, Visio, MS project
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
At least 5-7 years of project management / management
consulting experience, proven track record of structuring and
delivering successful projects and implementing change
management
Direct, research, design, and development and testing of operating
systems level software, compilers, and network distribution
software. Manage automation and improvement of internal and external
software systems. Set operational goals and specifications. Manage the
complex process of software deployment and set rules and standards for
developers, testers, engineers and technical writers.
Permanent Full Time Position, M-F, 9am to 6pm
Requirements: Master's Degree in Business Administration or Management and 4 years of related experience in IT Industry
E-Mail Resume to:
recruiting@arielpartners.com
Att: Mr. Craeg Strong, Partner
Ariel Partners, LLC
1375 Broadway, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10018
Program and test operating systems level software, compilers, and
network distribution software. Collect, review and analyze project
data to identify and implement programming solutions during the
developmental and advance stages of construction of software. Utilize
Java, SQL, Perl, Shell, and ANT programming languages to achieve
project goal. Lead client conference sessions to analyze progress and
recommend next phase of project. Supervise other programmers.
Permanent Full Time Position, M-F, 9am to 6pm
Requirements: Master's Degree in Computer Science or Electrical
Engineering and 1 year of experience as programmer.
E-Mail Resume to:
recruiting@arielpartners.com
Att: Mr. Craeg Strong, Partner
Ariel Partners, LLC
1375 Broadway, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10018
Mid-level to senior consulting position on stable long-term
development project in midtown NYC: time and attendance and
workforce management
Pay range: $55/hour+, depending on experience
The Business Analyst (BA) is responsible for gathering,
analyzing, documenting, organizing, tracking, and communicating
requirements. The BA will interface directly with client
representatives to discuss functional and non functional
requirements and key system usages. The BA should have excellent
oral and written communication skills. The BA should have
experience differentiating between problems and solutions and
between essential needs and impractical or unnecessary wishlist
items. The BA must interact with the development team to
communicate requirements and use cases. The BA will also work
with the system test team to identify key testing scenarios.
The BA should have experience using a requirements capture tool
such as Requisite Pro, Caliber RM, or homegrown requirements
database. The BA should have significant expertise with both UML
and non-UML analysis techniques such as business functional
modeling and functional decomposition, use case diagrams, and
leading RAD/JAD sessions. Understanding of basic object oriented
concepts such as classes and inheritance is critical. The BA
should be comfortable with at least one UML-oriented analysis
tool such as Together, Rational Rose, Visio/UML, ArgoUML, Magic
Draw, etc.
The BA will be expected to specialize in one or more products in
the overall project product line and to help facilitate its
growth towards full deployment of all user constituencies and
the target user base of 300,000 users.
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Document, organize, and track requirements using an
automated tool (currently Requisite Pro)
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Create and maintain use case diagrams and other business
functional diagrams using Rational Rose and other tools
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Identify and document new features, enhancements and
defects using the features catalog and Clear Quest
-
Maintain manual and automated mappings between
requirements, use cases, and features
-
Provide analysis statements for features assigned to
development including links to relevant use cases,
requirements, analysis documents, examples, diagrams, etc.
-
Document specific scenarios that will be used by the
development and/or system test teams to validate the work
product.
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BA candidates must be fluent in use cases, requirements
analysis, business scenarios, and basic UML. BA candidates
must have experience with at least one UML Modeling tool
such as Rose, Together, ArgoUML, etc.
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Experience with automated requirements tracker
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Scripting experience, such as Shell, Perl, Python, or Ant
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Experience with Rational SoDA to generate reports from
Rose, Requisite Pro, Clear Quest
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Other report generator such as Crystal Reports
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Experience facilitating meetings and presenting before
groups of senior business managers
-
Rational tool suite including Clearcase, Clear Quest,
Rose, and Requisite Pro
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Knowledge of business functional analysis and functional
decomposition
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Business knowledge in the area of time and attendance,
payroll, and/or work force management
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Experience using competing tools such as Kronos
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
At least 5 years of total experience in business analysis
Junior to Mid-level consulting position on stable long-term
development project in midtown NYC: time and attendance and
workforce management
Pay range: $45/hour+, depending on experience
This individual should have the skills to control and administer
the process of Change Management. This includes the
representation of changes before change boards and other meeting
groups that contain client members. This person should have
excellent communication skills, excellent people skills, an
ability to follow and promote process and an ability to manage
multiple threads at once.
-
Clear Quest Administration (Novice level)
-
Rational Suite (medium level)
-
Knowledge and experience in Change Management
(Mandatory)
-
Good customer interface skills (Mandatory)
-
Experience in Software development project team
(Mandatory)
-
Knowledge of Java development specifics (Preferred)
-
Knowledge and experience with Crystal Report creation
(Preferred)
-
Experience with development and adherence to Software
Development Process (Preferred)
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
2-4 years in Change Management or Client facing process.
Mid-level to Senior consulting position on stable long-term
development project in midtown NYC: time and attendance and
workforce management
Pay range: $65/hour+, depending on experience
The Database Deployment Engineer (DDE) is responsible for
automating and improving internal and external database
deployments developed by the project team. The product is a
complex system comprised of multiple components with different
release cycles and development teams. Deployments are done at
many different frequencies and for many different
reasons. Automated builds and deployments are done hourly as
part of a continuous integration and automated unit testing
process. At the other end of the spectrum, production
deployments are scheduled months in advance with a rigorous
checklist of specific features and fixes to be included or
excluded.
The DDE is responsible for development of scripts to automate
both incremental and full database deployments of both schema
and data. The scripts must be integrated into the overall change
management strategy, with standard scripting and automation
tools (e.g. Ant, AntHill Pro), and with the official CM tools
(e.g. Rational Clear Quest and Clear Case). Every database
change must be associated with an Issue Request (IR) registered
in the appropriate tools (Clear Quest, etc.) and different sets
of IRs may be co-deployed into databases across multiple
environments.
Full automation of database changes is complicated by the following factors:
-
The project databases contain both data and metadata, with
complex interrelationships, and
-
certain database changes may have ordering dependencies,
which may necessitate multiple versions of a script
depending on whether other changes have been put into effect
or not.
-
Rational Unified Change Management Administration (Expert
level) (Mandatory)
-
Clear Case Administration (Expert level) (Mandatory)
-
Clear Quest Administration (Expert level) (Mandatory)
-
Rational Suite (Expert level) (Preferred)
-
Knowledge and experience in fundamental Change Management
(Mandatory)
-
Good customer interface skills (Mandatory)
-
Experience in Software development project team
(Mandatory)
-
Knowledge of Java development specifics (Preferred)
-
Knowledge and experience with Crystal Report creation
(Preferred)
-
Experience with development and adherence to Software
Development Process (Mandatory)
-
Knowledge and experience in relational databases (expert
level) (mandatory)
-
Experience with web server administration (medium level)
(preferred)
-
Experience and knowledge of scripting languages (Perl,
Ant, etc.) (Mandatory)
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
5-8+ years in Database Administration experience. 2+ Years in
scripting experience.
Mid-level to Senior consulting position on stable long-term
development project in midtown NYC: time and attendance and
workforce management
Pay range: $65/hour+, depending on experience
The Automated Testing Engineer (ATE) is responsible for
determining and executing the overall project software quality
strategy. The primary components of this strategy consist of
automating, reporting, enhancing, and socializing automated
tests and other software quality metrics. The ATE will assemble
the reports into a series of web-based project quality
dashboards of various types to satisfy the reporting needs of
different project stakeholder groups. These dashboards should
present a comprehensive picture of the overall quality of a
given software product that can be reproduced in (near)
real-time.
The ATE will facilitate test development by helping to automate
the tedius parts of writing tests including setup, teardown,
data pre, data scrub, and results reporting. The ATE will
enhance this test framework over time in support of the
development team to write more and better tests. The ATE will
collaborate with Database Administrators and the Software
Deployment team to determine whether special automated test-only
deployments are required and the respective conventions and
mechanisms.
The ATE ensures that the quality metrics check source code
against conventions for style, complexity, and structure, as
well as changes in SLOC to understand risk. (e.g. the more that
is changed, the greater the possibility of introducing
additional defects).
The ATE will collaborate closely with his/her counterpart in the
development team to jointly maintain and execute the overall
software quality strategy in support of project goals. The ATE
must have the ability to understand and distinguish human
factors that contribute to the ultimate success or failure of
any software quality initiative.
The ATE must take great care to avoid common antipatterns that
can sabotage their efforts. For example, false positives and
excess verbosity can quickly lead to developer "tune out" and
loss of mindshare. Too many metrics can lead management to "tune
out" or to focus on the wrong things. A poorly tuned report is
usually worse than no report at all. For this reason, many
reports may stay in "development mode" for a long time before
they are crisp enough to go live. Certain reports may be
appropriate at certain times or for certain audiences but not
others.
The tests are primarily written and maintained by members of the
development team. The tests may include unit tests, functional
tests and integration tests using frameworks and technologies
such as jUnit, cactus, dbUnit, sqlUnit, selenium, jmeter,
etc. The quality metrics consist of reports generated from both
open source and commercial tools such as Websphere, jmetra,
checkstyle, etc.
-
Experience and knowledge of scripting languages (Perl,
Ant, etc.) (Mandatory)
-
Experience and knowledge of XML processing languages (CSS,
HTML, XML, XSLT, some Java Script (Mandatory)
-
Rational Suite (Preferred)
-
Knowledge and experience in fundamental Change Management
(Mandatory)
-
Experience in Software development project team
(Mandatory)
-
Knowledge of Java development specifics (Preferred)
-
Experience with development and adherence to Software
Development Process (Mandatory)
-
Knowledge and experience in relational databases
(Mandatory)
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
5-8+ years of Development team experience including experience
with Ant and xUnit technologies.
Mid-level to senior consulting position on stable long-term
development project in midtown NYC: time and attendance and
workforce management
Pay range: $45/hour+, depending on experience
The Back End Programmer (BEP) is responsible for maintaining and
extending the back end of the application. He or she should be
comfortable with Java, JUnit, Struts, EJBs, Relational
Databases, SQL, and Object Relational Mapping concepts. The BEP
should have an understanding of key J2EE design patterns such as
Session Facade, Business Delegate, Data Access Object, Service
Locator, Transfer Object, and Model-View-Controller. The BEP
will create and maintain business objects and their unit tests,
business delegates, EJBs, Data Access Objects, and Toplink
Mappings to tables, views, and other SQL constructs.
Ideally, the BEP should be familiar with UML and UML modeling
tools, especially class and sequence diagrams. The BEP should
understand and have implementation experience dealing with
transactional, concurrency, scalability, and performance issues
associated with major commercial web applications such as ACID
properties, optimistic vs pessimistic locking, etc.
-
Write, test, and document Java code in support of new features
and defect fixes.
-
Create and maintain Toplink mappings.
-
Work with front end developers to construct XML generators
for the front end screens they maintain. The generated
XML acts as a contract between the front and back end.
Advise and assit with the construction of Request and
Result classes as necessary to create new business objects
from, and return data to, the front end.
-
Receive assigned work items in Rational ClearQuest, check
in work via Clearcase, possibly merge fixes from one
branch of development to another, and update CQ records
accordingly.
-
BEP candidates must be fluent in Java, JUnit, EJBs, SQL, J2EE Design
Patterns Object/Relational Mapping issues, and Struts.
-
BEP candidates must have major commercial development
experience with Websphere, Weblogic, JBoss, Oracle, or
other J2EE-based application server.
-
BEP candidates must have some experience with Object
relational mapping engines or OODBMS such as Hibernate,
JDO, Toplink, Cache, etc.
-
At least one UML Modeling tool such as Rose, Together, ArgoUML, etc.
-
Experience with Toplink
-
MQ Series or other JMS experience
-
Websphere Application Server
-
XML and XSLT, for example with Cocoon
-
Blaze Advisor, ILog JRules, or similar business rules
engine
-
Rational tool suite including Clearcase, ClearQuest, Rose,
and RequisitePro
-
Experience with Apache other major open source tools such
as JDOM, STXX, Digestor, Commons Collections, Cocoon,
Tomcat, etc.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
At least 5 years of total experience in software development
is required, with at least 1 year of experience specific to
developing back-ends for web based applications.
Junior to Mid-level consulting position on stable long-term
development project in midtown NYC: time and attendance and
workforce management
Pay range: $45/hour+, depending on experience
The Software Deployment Coordinator (SDE) is responsible for
scheduling, coordinating, executing, and validating builds and
deployments, and for assisting and coordinating efforts to
diagnose failed builds and deployments. The SDE will execute
builds and deployments using automated tools such as Ant Hill
Pro. The ADE is responsible for creating and maintaining Ant
Hill Pro configurations (e.g. which scripts get executed, in
which order, by whom, and when).
The SDE works with a change management tool (Rational Clear
Quest) to ensure all builds and deployments are properly
authorized and have passed all the prerequisites. The SDE is
responsible for understanding the change set associated with
each build and for ensuring that each individual Issue Request
within the change set is propagated through the work flow and
routed to the appropriate parties. Finally, the SDE executes
automated and manual smoke tests to verify the integrity of a
given build and/or deployment.
-
Experience and knowledge of scripting languages (Perl,
Ant, etc.) (Preferred)
-
Rational Suite (Preferred)
-
Knowledge and experience in fundamental Change Management
(Mandatory)
-
Experience in Software development project team
(Mandatory)
-
Experience with development and adherence to Software
Development Process (Mandatory)
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
2+ years relevant experience
Ariel Partners, LLC is looking for a full time Senior Technical
Recruiter to join our New York City office. Ariel Partners, LLC
is a fast growing IT staffing, IT consulting, management
consulting and software development firm with offices in midtown
Manhattan. Ariel Partners has an established track record of
successful technology implementations for Fortune 500 companies,
and we have expanded our portfolio of services to include
full-time staffing, temp-to-hire, temporary, and subcontractor
placement. Ariel's extensive internal shared knowledgebase,
proprietary tools and patented technologies, and the breadth and
depth of business savvy and technical know-how distinguish it
from its competitors.
Pay: 80,000.00 - 120,000.00 USD / Per Year
The successful candidate should have experience in the full
cycle recruiting process as well as a good understanding of
Information Technology. Candidate will also assist with
assembling project teams for responding to customer RFPs and
staffing internal Ariel projects, outsourced projects,
maintenance contracts and other service level agreements.
The successful candidate should have a minimum of 5+ years IT
recruiting experience and be skilled in fulfilling a hybrid role
between a corporate and staffing agency recruiter. S/he must be
experienced in the full cycle recruiting process to include
sourcing, screening, and closing of both regular employees and
corp-to-corp/1099 contractors. Requires an ability to handle
short and long-term consulting positions as well as
permanent needs with clients and within Ariel Partners.
This role will formally establish and centralize the Recruiting
functions for Ariel Partners. Much of the day-to-day work may be
done off-site or from a home office, but there will be frequent
meetings at Ariel's New York office and at various client sites
around the New York metro area. Although we expect most of the
work to take place in and around NYC, occasional trips to other
key markets such as Washington DC and/or Boston, MA may be
required.
The Recruiter would be responsible for the following recruitment functions:
-
Management of the recruitment process - establishing and
maintaining relationships with individuals who possess
marketable skills and helping Ariel to source and assess
candidates according to position specifications for its
customers;
-
Effectively managing relationships both internally with
hiring managers and outside vendors; and
-
Extending Ariel's network of contacts and candidates through
various means.
The successful candidate will leverage Ariel's current network
of talent consisting largely of personal referrals and business
colleagues. Understanding the highly dynamic nature of the job
market (e.g. today's CIO/CTO/hiring manager may become
tomorrow's consulting candidate, and vice versa), the Recruiter
will use multiple means to extend Ariel's network of contacts
and candidates including the following kinds of activities:
-
creating and posting job specifications on company website
and outside job forums,
-
attending and/or presenting at job fairs and career
development seminars,
-
attending relevant local technical user group meetings and
monthly professional networking sessions,
-
attending and/or presenting at local colleges and
universities, and
-
networking with partner firms, current and former
successfully placed candidates, and other business
contacts.
The Recruiter will maintain an extensive on-line database of
contacts including past, present, and potential future workers
and hiring managers. The candidate must understand the nature of
Ariel's business relationships (higher margin/lower volume,
"high touch") and our commitment to provide an extraordinarily
high quality of service always exceeding our customer's
expectations. The Recruiter is a senior position requiring at
least five years of experience, and a high degree of motivation,
independent initiative, organization, and follow through. The
position is salaried with a per-placement commission that varies
according to whether the placement was based on a referral or
was recruited directly or through an agency or other
intermediary.
-
Meet with the Office Manager and/or Partners at the New
York company office on a regular (at least weekly) basis.
-
Conduct first-level screening interviews with prospective
candidates
-
Check references
-
Maintain an on-line searchable database of candidate
profiles using standard Ariel tools. Training will be
provided.
-
Prepare candidate resumes for submission according to
Ariel specifications in the proper formats using standard
Ariel tools. Training will be provided.
-
Schedule interviews
-
Negotiate rates (checking with Senior Partners, who have
final decision making authority)
-
Serve as candidate's main point of contact throughout the
hiring cycle
-
Communication: Excellent written and Oral Communication
Skills
-
Interviewing: Strong interviewing skills
-
Office Productivity: Software Proficiency with Office
productivity software such as Word and Excel.
-
Proven analytical / problem solving abilities
-
Strong Organizational and follow up skills
-
Strong sense of urgency; ability to execute quickly and
effectively
-
Proven ability to develop and manage relationships with
clients
-
Well versed with HR policies and practicies
Time management skills
-
Outgoing personality
-
Highly resourceful, self-starter, and results oriented,
with the ability to multi-task
-
Willingness to learn
Ariel Partners is a small, highly expert staffing and
IT consulting firm - a special forces unit capable of
securing the human capital required to enable the enterprise
to conquer new challenges, of bringing major projects back
from the brink of disaster, developing architectures, or
programming special purpose applications.
Who We Are
Ariel consultants are distinguished in the depth and breadth of
their experience and knowledge. They understand that to be
solved effectively the problems in IT must be addressed at
multiple levels - people, processes, and technology.
What We Do
Ariel Partners deploys its extensive consulting experience to
help clients meet a wide variety of technical and management
challenges. Our many services include
- business system development
- web application development
- Information Technology (IT) mentoring
- Reuse program establishment,
- IT management consulting, and project services.
Ariel Partners pursues ongoing research and development to
create a suite of tools that make our veterans even more
effective. We are constantly revising and polishing our tools
to make them available to our customers.
Ariel maintains its own up-to-date prototyping and development
laboratory that it can put to immediate use to meet its
clients' requirements.
CONTACT ARIEL PARTNERS
Phone
646-467-7394
Address
1375 Broadway Floor 3
New York, NY 10018
Email
Web Site
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