Dylan Griffiths, Author at CACI

How CACI enabled strategic IT management for a central government department

Posted on: 2 August 2024

BACKGROUND

Our customer, a central government department, operates with a diverse and complex array of technology solutions consisting of hundreds of systems, applications, and services that support its operations.

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) identified a significant gap in management information regarding IT and its alignment with broader business objectives. This gap has hindered the leadership team’s ability to make informed strategic and investment decisions.

IT services are provided by commercial suppliers, other government departments, and internal development teams, often leading to disparate data, duplication, technical debt and therefore waste.

The department has a strategy to drive change and ensure operational effectiveness and efficiency for the benefit of taxpayers. The CTO is responsible for the day-to-day operations of IT and makes decisions on investments to innovate, grow, maintain, and retire systems within the IT estate, ensuring alignment with the departmental strategy.

THE CHALLENGE

The CTO faced challenges in driving this strategy due to a lack of knowledge about the state and interdependencies of systems within the IT estate, making it difficult to make evidence-based investment decisions. The necessary information was not readily available often leading to lengthy, one-off investigations to surface the data required.

To address this issue, the CTO initiated the establishment of Enterprise, Business, and Solution Architecture practices. These practices will create architectures, to be stored in a single repository, providing a cohesive link from strategy through business and applications, to the underlying technology.

A key requirement for the architecture was that it should be a live digital resource, actively used and maintained by a wide community across the organisation. If this is not achieved, the architecture is at risk of becoming outdated and unable to provide the answers it was designed to address.

THE SOLUTION

CACI was engaged to scope and define the architecture to be captured and provide assurance that it would be sustainable and fit for purpose. CACI collaborated with the customer to agree the activities required to achieve the goal:

Defining a meta-model that can capture the architecture that will answer these questions, such as which business capabilities would be affected by the degradation or loss of an IT System.
Discovering the questions the architecture needed to answer. This activity augmented findings from earlier work, as well as further consultation with stakeholders.
Estimating the volume of elements and relationships within the model and the amount of effort to maintain it.
Demonstrate that the meta-model is sufficient to accommodate and assist with an inflight initiative (Move to Product) to reorganise management of IT around Products, e.g. progress on understanding product and system life cycle and interdependencies.
Demonstrate that, when populated, the architecture repository will support other initiatives, such as (Move to Cloud) migrating IT from on-premises into cloud services, therefore future-proofing the practice.

THE RESULTS

The project produced the following results:

CACI has helped the department achieve a sufficient level of maturity in its architecture practices, along with artefacts and skills, to continue the journey to a fully mature capability.
The department is re-using and building on the architecture captured to date to continually monitor progress and alignment with strategic goals.
The artefacts generated by the Move to Product initiative are being used to populate the repository to relate IT through a base lined Business Capability Model (BCM) to value and strategic goals.
This in turn is being integrated with other corporate data sources to produce dashboards for decision making at board meetings.

THE FUTURE

The department has adopted the solution and, unaided, its architects are now populating the repository. Having started small there is now an appetite to extend the reach of the architecture captured, to cover other aspects of concern to the CTO, e.g. security and information flows. CACI is aiming to assist the department achieve these goals through several targeted assignments over the next financial year.

Download this customer case study here.

Unlocking the power of Digital Twins with Mood: Your ultimate platform for organisational excellence

Posted on: 24 July 2024

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organisations are seeking innovative ways to enhance efficiency, streamline operations, and drive strategic growth. One of the most transformative concepts to emerge in recent years is the Digital Twin of an Organisation (DTO). This powerful paradigm allows businesses to create a virtual replica of their entire enterprise, enabling real-time analysis, simulation, and optimisation. Among the wide range of tools available, Mood stands out as the unparalleled enabler for creating a comprehensive Digital Twin, offering unmatched capabilities.

What is a DTO?

A DTO is a dynamic, virtual representation of the business, encompassing its processes, systems, capabilities, assets, and data. This digital counterpart takes real-time information allowing businesses to monitor performance, predict outcomes, and make informed decisions. By leveraging DTO organisations can visualise their entire operation, identify inefficiencies, test scenarios, and implement changes with confidence, all without disrupting actual operations.

The Mood advantage: A unique proposition

Mood offers a unique and comprehensive suite of capabilities for creating and managing a DTO. which makes it the game-changer required:

Holistic Integration: with a whole-systems approach, Mood sits at the centre of your eco-system, mapping a wide range of enterprise systems and data sources, ensuring that your DTO is a true reflection of your organisation, enabling evidence–based decision making. From ERP and CRM systems to IoT devices and data warehouses, Mood consolidates information from disparate sources into a unified, coherent model.
Dynamic Visualisation: With Mood, you can visualise complex processes and structures in an intuitive, user-friendly interface. This dynamic visualisation capability allows stakeholders to easily comprehend intricate relationships and dependencies within the organisation, facilitating data-driven decision-making.
Monitoring and Analysis: Mood enables continuous monitoring of organisational performance through real-time data feeds. This ensures that your DTO is up to date, providing accurate insights and enabling proactive management of potential issues before they escalate.
Simulation and Scenario Planning: One of Mood’s standout features is its ability to run simulations and scenario analyses. Whether you’re considering a process change, a new strategy, or a potential disruption, Mood allows you to model these scenarios and assess their impact on the organisation, helping you make data-driven decisions with confidence.
Scalability and Flexibility: As your organisation grows and evolves, Mood grows with you. Its scalable meta-modelling and flexible customisation options ensure that your DTO remains relevant and aligned with your business needs, regardless of size or complexity.
Robust Security: Mood prioritises the security of your data, employing encryption and access control mechanisms to safeguard sensitive information. This ensures that your DTO remains secure and compliant with industry regulations.

Real-world applications and benefits

The adoption of Mood as your DTO brings tangible benefits across various aspects of your organisation:

Enhanced Operational Efficiency: By visualising and analysing processes in context, you can identify bottlenecks, optimise resource allocation, and streamline operations, leading to significant cost savings and productivity improvements.
Informed Strategic Planning: Mood’s powerful query capabilities enable you to test different strategies and initiatives in a risk-free environment, providing valuable insights that guide strategic planning and execution.
Proactive Risk Management: With monitoring and analytics, Mood helps you anticipate and mitigate risks, ensuring business continuity and resilience in the face of disruptions.
Improved Collaboration: Mood’s intuitive visualisation fosters better collaboration among departments and stakeholders, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards common goals.

See our case studies for the myriad ways in which Mood has been used, including the Defence Fuels Enterprise digital twin, here.

Conclusion

In an era where digital transformation is not just an option but a necessity, DTO stands out as a vital tool for achieving business excellence. Mood emerges as the unparalleled enabler for this transformative journey, offering an unmatched suite of capabilities that empower organisations to create, manage, and leverage their Digital Twins effectively.

No other platform combines the holistic integration, dynamic visualisation, powerful analytics, scalability, and robust security that Mood provides. By choosing Mood, you are not just adopting a software tool; you are embracing a comprehensive solution that equips your organisation to thrive in the digital age.

Unlock the full potential of your organisation with Mood – the ultimate platform for creating and harnessing the power of your Digital Twin of an Organisation.

Invention or Innovation; Evolution or Revolution?

Posted on: 4 July 2024

Our choice of language is critical in achieving effective communication, particularly in architecture-driven insight modelling. Terms like Enterprise, Business, and Solutions Architecture, and tools such as frameworks, viewpoints, models, elements, and relationships can be loaded. To some, these terms mean something specific; to others, they describe loosely understood aspects of a modelling ecosystem.

When engaging with any enterprise in the context of architecture-driven insight modelling, it’s important to learn and use the business dialect. Learning to speak their language develops an understanding of how they think and what they want from architecture, and how to apply the modelling discipline to deliver it.

In some instances, the rigid application of a particular modelling style, framework, notation, or language without considering why it is done that way can quickly distract from the main effort.

Four years ago, I was part of the conception of a model to help an Enterprise understand an aspect of their world that had proven too difficult until then. This was mostly because:

The data supporting the insight was dispersed across various loosely connected domains.
Aspects of the data were subject to change.
By the time enough information was gathered to derive insight, the data was already outdated.

This marked the beginning of a rich and varied modelling journey, first to understand the logical representation of the Enterprise landscape in a manner that would deliver timely insights. ‘Keep it simple, start small’ was the mantra at this stage. Building a new model wasn’t an invention, as the tooling, modelling discipline, and enterprise data already existed, albeit dispersed.

The model evolved over time, as most models do; as our thinking and understanding evolved, so did the model. Initially, changes were volatile, but they gradually stabilised as our thinking became more refined, and the model became more mature and stable.

The greatest thing on this journey was the need to innovate. We had seen many patterns over the years, ways of describing enterprise landscapes in certain styles, or using our technology in specific ways. This model required a bespoke approach to meet an unprecedented demand for insight, which called for innovation to deliver.

Each twist and turn in the model’s evolution demanded an innovative approach to achieve the desired outcome. I learned to describe modelling as more of an art than a science. Particularly challenging problems would occupy my mind for days, even weeks. My creative juices flowed best during the early hours, prime time for making progress. A home office setup was crucial, especially when a modeller wakes in the middle of the night with a eureka moment that must be realised quickly, or risk dissolving into a hazy dream by morning.

Evolution is natural, invention isn’t always necessary, revolution can be a game changer, but in all of these, innovation is king.

You can find out more on how Mood can help transform your architecture here, or get in touch with the team at moodenquiries@caci.co.uk.

Refreshing Scrum with the Ball Point Game

Posted on:

On a recent programme development day, Phil Ballard, one of our award-winning Scrum masters facilitated the Ball Point Game. This is an industry-known Agile game which is usually run as part of an introduction to the Agile ethos for those keen to follow the Scrum methodology.

Despite CACI having teams that are highly experienced in Scrum, we still found this activity to be useful not only as a “going back to basics” session, but also from the several other lessons learned from our own adaptation.

Ball Point Game: basic overview

Teams of eight are formed, with each team collecting a bag of balls.

Within an Iteration (of which four take place), teams pass as many balls as possible among team members, with each ball passed scoring the team a point. Teams must adhere to the acceptance criteria of each ball being touched at least once by every member, each ball returning to the same person who introduced it into the team, each ball having “airtime” as it moves between team members, lost balls being fetched and re-entering the team where it left and dropped balls not being re-introduced into the system. During each Iteration, teams will have one minute to talk among themselves and two minutes to perform the ‘Objective’. Prior to each Iteration, an estimate for the number of balls expected to pass through the team within the next Iteration is predicted.

CACI’s spin on the Ball Point Game

Considering teams are already experienced in delivering in scrum, we made things more lifelike by introducing additional requirements in Iterations 3 and 4:

The balls are being sold in packs of ten, with at least one of them being green.
All balls must continue to gain height as they are passed through the team.

After all, what’s software delivery without a stakeholder wanting to change their mind? The idea behind these rules was to break the established process, force change and to see what behaviours the scrum-experienced professionals would exhibit.

Ball Point Game goals

The Ball Point Game’s ultimate goal was to teach participants the value of continuous process improvement through basic agile principles using the simulation of an agile production process, including:

Teamwork/shared goals
Retrospectives/problem-solving
Planning
Estimating based on experience.

All processes have a natural velocity. To speed things up, it is often not a case of working harder or faster, but a case of changing the process.

Key takeaways

After all Iterations were complete, we discussed the results and asked teams to contribute their experiences with the following questions:

Which Iteration felt as though it was the best/worst?
How important was the retrospective between Iterations?
What changes did you make?
How did the team make decisions – did anybody take charge?
Were all ideas heard within your teams?
Was there anything notable in determining your estimates?
Were improvements made by working harder or faster?
Did you observe/experience anything else of interest?

With the additional requirements added:

Iterative development is also based on learning from the live product and adapting to what the customer and end user needs.
Without anything being live, there is nothing to learn from and no way for the product to adapt.
Sprint teams must adapt to estimating with new requirements versus estimating on a known repeatable task.

Additional findings from the teams

The short timings of Iteration planning, along with the input of additional requirements, seemed to force an intensity. This, in turn, forced out several negative behaviours that we have not experienced on the programme, however, recognised within this competitive environment.
Low sprint commitments despite the team feeling it was a known task.
Sprint teams stopping when hitting commitment as there was an assumption that the game goal of the exercise was to have a stable velocity.
Argumentative behaviours exemplified (not the usual collaborative approach we usually see).
A competitive nature towards the other sprint teams, prohibiting the sharing of lessons learned. While the rules never stated they were against each other, it was inherently assumed when splitting participants into teams and asking them to perform the same task.

On a more positive note:

Many questions were asked about the requirements, with a focus on what the user/customers’ needs and problems were
Looking outside of the team for improvement inspiration despite its interpretation as spying.
Reflection on what we do in practice versus the theory/Agile beliefs
Great discussions around the overall value of sprinting and iterative delivery.

If you wish to find out more about the Ball Point Game or run it yourself within your programme or teams, please get in touch.

Insights from the London Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management Conference 2024

Posted on: 19 June 2024

Bridging the Gap: How MooD Enhances Enterprise and Business Architecture

Attending the recent Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management (EA & BPM) conference in London was a fascinating experience, full of insightful discussions and thought-provoking presentations. An overarching theme emerged from the official sessions, informal conversations at our Mood stand, and general networking: the critical importance of aligning enterprise and business architecture disciplines with broader business objectives and stakeholder engagement.

A recurring concern highlighted at the conference was the perceived disconnect between enterprise architecture tools and their practical value to the broader business community. One speaker poignantly noted that while enterprise architecture tools are indispensable for architects, they often fail to resonate with other business stakeholders.

This is where I wanted to jump up from my position in the audience and shout, “But we can, and that’s our edict!” Luckily, my inner filter kicked in, and I didn’t rudely interrupt the speaker.

The challenge lies in the fact that models and architectures, no matter how sophisticated, need to be comprehensible and relevant to diverse groups of stakeholders to truly drive value. Often, this means not presenting a model at all.

The Challenge of Stakeholder Engagement

The conference underscored a significant issue: presenting complex models to a wide range of stakeholders often falls flat, failing to translate into actionable insights within their real-world contexts. It was also mentioned that architects should focus on presenting findings rather than making recommendations, implying that the business itself should derive the ‘to-be’ states. This perspective highlights a need for tools that not only capture and represent complex data but also facilitate understanding and collaboration across the entire organisation.

Mood: A Unified Approach to Enterprise and Business Architecture

This is where Mood’s capabilities truly shine. At Mood, we understand the necessity of bridging the gap between intricate architectural frameworks and practical business applications. Our platform offers an unconstrained, no-code, drag-and-drop visualisation interface, making content accessible to both technical architects and business stakeholders and making that content live, enabling input and feedback.

Unified Tool and Repository: Mood provides a single tool and repository for all architectural and business models, live data, and business visualisations, establishing a single source of truth and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Flexible Meta-Modelling: Our flexible meta-modelling capability allows for the creation of meaningful taxonomies and data structures that reflect the unique needs and contexts of your organisation. This adaptability ensures that the models are not just technically accurate but also contextually relevant to the business and agile to change.

True Collaboration: By enabling true collaboration throughout the lifecycle of a transformation programme and beyond, Mood ensures that all stakeholders are involved and engaged throughout. Our platform facilitates seamless communication and collaboration, breaking down silos and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and alignment.

Conclusion

The EA & BPM Conference in London highlighted a critical challenge in the fields of enterprise and business architecture: the need to bring the business along for the journey. Tools and models must not only be robust but also accessible and meaningful to a diverse audience.

Mood addresses these challenges head-on, providing a platform that unifies enterprise and business architecture with its environment, enabling true collaboration and understanding. By leveraging Mood’s powerful visualisation and flexible meta-modelling capabilities, organisations can ensure that their architectural efforts translate into real-world value, driving meaningful transformation and business success.

As we continue to innovate and enhance our platform, we remain committed to bridging the gap between architecture and business, helping organisations to navigate their transformation journeys with confidence and clarity.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our experiences and insights from the EA & BPM Conference. We look forward to continuing the conversation and exploring how Mood can support your organisation in achieving its strategic goals.

Upcoming Event: Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival 2024

We are excited to announce that we will be exhibiting at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival, taking place from 8th to 11th July 2024 at Newcastle Racecourse. The festival gathers innovators from all over the globe and is set to bring valuable opportunities for hundreds of young people from across the North East.

The festival will feature design sprints, hacks, workshops and activities focused on solving environmental and societal challenges under the theme ‘Speed and Scale’. Join us to explore how Mood can contribute to these innovative solutions and help drive meaningful transformation. For more details, visit www.innovationfestival.org.

How has CACI responded to the Forensic Science Regulator Code?

Posted on: 29 May 2024

With the Forensic Science Regulator Code of Practice now a statutory requirement, Digital Forensics units pursuing ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation must use an ISO/IEC 17043 accredited proficiency testing provider. CACI’s Digital Forensics Lab has been assessed by UKAS and granted accreditation to BS EN ISO/IEC 17043:2023 for all our Digital Forensic Proficiency Testing schemes.

What is the Forensic Science Regulator Code of Practice?

GOV.UK states that the code “sets quality standard requirements for forensic science activities related to the investigation of crime and the criminal justice system in England and Wales” and came into force in October 2023. This being introduced will prove to be hugely impactful for forensic science and it’s importance and meets the regulator’s requirements for quality long-term.

CACI Proficiency Testing Schemes

Computer Based Devices – Acquisition
Computer Based Devices – Processing & Analysis
Mobile Based Phone – Acquisition, Processing & Analysis

What’s included in the scheme?

Computer Based Devices – Acquisition

Includes three to five physical devices each year.
Devices meet UKAS requirements to test the entire scope over a four-year period.
Focuses on acquisition processes and related challenges.
Includes pre-acquisition activities and more.

Computer Based Devices – Processing & Analysis

Provides forensic acquisition yearly for processing and analysis.
Meets the scope for Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS ad Linux over a three-year period.
Includes full case background, examination strategy, and workbook.
Focuses on processing and analysis processes and related challenges.

Mobile Based Devices – Acquisition, Processing & Analysis

Includes three physical test devices and forensic acquisition yearly.
Provides full case background, examination strategy, and workbook.
Focuses on acquisition, processing, and analysis processes and related challenges.
Includes pre-acquisition activities and more.

How do CACI’s PT schemes ensure relevance to Law Enforcement DFUs?

CACI’s PT schemes are designed to closely replicate typical law enforcement digital forensics submissions. Participants receive physical devices packaged as police exhibits, along with a submission document, allowing them to test their end-to-end processes. Both Computer Acquisition and Mobile Acquisition schemes test pre-acquisition activities and more.

If you would like to book yourself on the next proficiency testing scheme, please get in touch with our team.

Shaping an elite team mentality

Posted on: 22 May 2024

Written by Richard Thompson, Senior Technical Consultant, Mood

Team sports and consultancy may at first appear to be separate disciplines, but scratch beneath the surface and there are many similarities that can be drawn between the two. The drive to produce top–class performances is not something that comes naturally to all, but for those who strive for it, the end result can be quite special. The quest for excellence is an attitude that is forged and shared by all whom strive to be at the top of their game and constantly improve.

Working on the analogy further, additional commonalities between sports and consultancy unveil themselves, especially in terms of the approach taken. Nothing is achieved easily; judgement is based on the outcome, and difficulties are faced along the journey to achieving desired goals.

While everyone involved will have a different take, below are my four main focuses when undertaking any activity (both sporting and consultancy) to ensure my team achieves its greatest potential.

1. Why are we doing this?

In any aspect of life, if people innately understand why they are conducting a task and believe in its benefits, they will give it their all. Having personally been involved in consultancy for 13 years and coaching sports for 25, , I always ask the team “Why are we doing this?” upon carrying out any activity for the first time. The answers serve as a great barometer as to whether they have understood what they are being asked to do, and will flush out any concerns (or better alternatives) and will often provide previously unsought insights.

This can also be a great validation tool for why the action is being conducted, and the response “We’ve always done it that way” simply does not cut it as a reason. Time and techniques move on, and if people do not keep up, teams will be behind from the start.

2.Teamwork

Cooperation between team members is crucial to achieving the desired result. Even individual efforts are reliant on a team who are often behind the scenes, who can ensure the preparation is correct and the conditions are in place for an optimal outcome.

A top-class performer places immense value on their team, knowing that in order to succeed, everyone must align. Therefore, each individual must be treated with utmost respect. Appreciation on all levels works, whether it be calling out a colleague’s efforts, a token of appreciation or even a small compliment. Teammates are the ultimate ambassadors for future efforts.

3. “I can’t”

Admitting that you cannot do everything should never be seen as a weakness. Self-evaluation is vital in all walks of life and ensures the team has the right people in the right place, at the right time. This does not mean individual ability is not desired, but it should be used in conjunction with the right mix of abilities. The world’s best footballer cannot beat the best team on their own, for example, they need a strong mix of abilities around them to put them in right position at the right time, to do what they do best.

The statement “I can’t” should therefore be “I can’t on my own.”

4. Effort

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke, high school basketball coach.

Effort is the backbone of growth and success. This applies in all aspects of life, especially in learning and improvement. Effort drives learning, and when you put effort into a task, you are actively engaging with it. Effort allows you to learn from mistakes and gain new skills or knowledge while increasing your resilience and determination.

How CACI can help

Whether you feel you have any sort of sporting mindset or not is irrelevant. What is vital, however, is the merits of the why, the who, the what and the how.

At CACI, we have the optimal mix of talent and experience across multiple domains, from business analysts defining the why, the who and the what, to consultants, designers and architects providing the how. We help global businesses turn data and information assets to key success drivers as strategic components in a coherent and evolving system architecture, while also connecting stakeholders and practitioners to collaborate in complex business architecture projects.

If you have a complex problem, contact Mood to see how we may help you align strategy and vision, optimise data driven decision-making and future-proof your business.

Enterprise Architecture and BPM Conference 2024: Unveiling Mood’s role in enterprise transformation

Posted on: 2 May 2024

Introduction to EABPM and reflecting on EABPM 2023

Last year marked CACI Mood’s inaugural attendance at the IRM UK Enterprise Architecture & Business Process Modelling conference, a pivotal annual event focusing on enhancing professionals’ understanding of Enterprise Architecture and BPM.

The conference serves as a focal point for enterprise architects, BPM specialists, and industry leaders to exchange insights and experiences in applying these methodologies within real-world organisations. EABPM offers a rich educational platform, attracting influential speakers from leading organisations who provide invaluable insights into leveraging enterprise architecture and BPM to propel digital transformation and business value.

Reflecting on the workshops and discussions of the previous year, attendees explored how organisations leverage enterprise architecture to optimise business capabilities and streamline processes. The exhibition aspect of the conference provided access to solution providers showcasing their latest tools and technologies for managing enterprise architecture, modelling business processes, and facilitating automation.

Looking forward to EABPM 2024

This year, CACI Mood not only continues its participation and also takes pride in sponsoring the event alongside industry peers. Our team consists of Vickie White, Jess Robinson, and Matt Bosson will be actively involved, both at our stand and attending various workshops throughout the event. The team is excited to showcase CACI Mood’s enterprise architecture software platform and services, building upon the insights gained from last year’s event.

With an impressive line-up of speakers from diverse industries, this year’s agenda promises high-level technical sessions covering a range of topics. Attendees will gain valuable insights from representatives of large tech companies, consultancies, universities, and more.

Mood’s expertise

In a world of complex systems and evolving business challenges, Mood transforms scattered information into a living digital operating model, providing clarity and unparalleled collaboration. Mood drives strategic decision-making and ensures sustainable success by aligning strategy and operations, demonstrating impact, highlighting risks, and surfacing insights.

Mood delivers infinite value by enabling powerful analysis, rapid design, verification and validation, and appropriate presentation of complex architectures and systems, for targeted audiences. Whether your business needs a tool for enterprise architecture, a no-code application development tool, or a full digital twin platform, Mood has you covered.

Our Defence Digital case study is a perfect example of how CACI Mood software, meets the diverse needs of Defence Digital within the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Defence Digital swiftly fulfilled various requirements, from creating architectural models to developing interactive solutions. Explore our wide range of Mood case studies for further insights.

If you will be attending EABPM 2024 and wish to explore our enterprise architecture services or simply connect with the Mood team, please drop by the CACI stand. For those interested in arranging a meeting beforehand, kindly reach out to us at moodenquiries@caci.co.uk.

CACI’s Digital Forensics Lab granted ISO/IEC 17043:2023 accreditation for Proficiency Testing services

Posted on: 11 April 2024

CACI’s new Digital Forensics Laboratory has successfully passed its initial assessment and been granted accreditation to ISO/IEC 17043:2023 by UKAS for its Digital Forensic Proficiency Test schemes. This builds on the Laboratory recently receiving ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation back in February. This accreditation means that CACI are now the only accredited Digital Forensics Proficiency Testing provider in Europe.

Full scope details:

The following CACI Ltd Proficiency Testing Schemes have been accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for ISO/IEC 17043:2023:

Computer-Based Devices – Acquisition
Computer-Based Devices – Processing & Analysis
Mobile-Based Devices – Acquisition, Processing & Analysis

All schemes are tailored to meet the criteria for accredited digital forensics (DF) laboratories operating in law enforcement. Participation rates during proficiency testing cycles have been consistently increasing.

CACI’s DF Laboratory’s Operations Director, Richard Cockerill, had this to say:

“CACI are delighted with the news that we have been granted ISO/IEC 17043:2023 accreditation for our digital forensic proficiency testing services. Over the past year we have successfully delivered realistic and challenging PT schemes to UK Law Enforcement related organisations. Feedback from participants has been really positive. Now that we are an accredited PT provider we look forward to expanding our support in this area for both existing and new law enforcement clients.”

*The certificate of accreditation awarded to CACI will be available from the UKAS website shortly.

If you would like to enquire to our expert team about our proficiency testing or other digital forensics services, you can get in touch here.

How to craft a network automation strategy aligned with C-suite goals: A blueprint for success

Posted on: 10 April 2024

In the first blog of this two-part series, we assessed the impact of network automation on a business and ways in which a successful business case can be created. In this blog, we’ll look at strategies for keeping the C-suite interested in pursuing network automation and mistakes to avoid when developing strategies.

How to keep C-suite interested

Long-term network automation strategies will only be successful if the C-suite has consistent buy-in on its implementation and maintenance. This can be achieved through:

Providing progress updates: Sharing network automation progress updates with C-suite staff will help quantify its impact on the business and keep momentum high in terms of maintaining it.
Highlighting ROI for the business: Cost reductions, increased capacity or resources and overall performance are all high interest to C-suite staff. Ensuring the C-suite is aware of how network automation affects these will be critical.
Demonstrating alignment with the business’ strategic goals: Highlighting the ways in which network automation consistently aligns with the business’ strategic goals will help C-suite staff visualise the long-term business outcomes.
Adapting to changes: C-suite members’ business priorities are likely to change over time. Remaining flexible and willing to re-align to changing priorities as needed will ensure long-term success of network automation within the business.

It is often the case where organisations’ focus on network automation, while well-intended, results in them biting off more than they can chew rather than breaking down more tactical, low-hanging fruit. Despite this having an immediate impact, it can be less visible to senior executives. In general, network automation should be applied to try and achieve two key areas for immediate impact:

Improve the consistency of network deployment
Reduce noise within network operations.

4 common mistakes to avoid when developing a network automation strategy

Some of the common mistakes we see that diverge these two key aims include:

Trying to do too much too soon

The key with any automation in winning over detractors is incremental consistency over widespread adoption. We often find that small, tactical, lower-level automations with well-scoped outcomes for low-hanging fruit can exceptionally impact the overall consistency of deployment for this element and kickstart the incremental flywheel of trust. This is due to lower-level engineers and operations staff seeing the immediate benefit of automation and beginning to organically adopt these approaches within other higher-value, business-impacting tasks.

Successfully adopted and maintained automation efforts nearly always look like bottom-up, grassroots endeavours, where buy-in through adoption and proven time efficiency or consistency outcomes have been recognised by low-level engineering resources closest to the network who can advocate for the approach to other peers on their level to the wider organisation. Quantifiable results which prove IT’s ability to deliver are key in achieving grassroots adoption which flows up the organisational hierarchy, rather than trying to mandate this as a top-down approach. Human psychology is as big a factor in network automation’s success in an organisation as technical prowess, given the personal friction many engineers will have to automation as something which could affect their personal wellbeing or circumstances.

Focusing on the wrong use cases (selection bias)

Use cases which resonate with the business context faced by your organisation are pivotal in creating network automations that are immediately impactful and reap actual business rewards. Executive-led automation efforts can focus too intently on senior IT leaders’ specific issues that may be perceived as higher-affecting but are often more niche and low-scale than more commodity – but wider-scale – issues as seen by engineering and deployment resources.

Network automation should focus on the daily toil rather than the aspirational state. For example, more dividend will be yielded by automating a firewall rule request process which several of your engineers unknowingly gatekeep as a bottleneck to your application development and implementation projects than would be from, for example, automating network configuration backups, which will likely already be catered for by a disaster recovery process, no matter how human-intensive that may be.

Tool-led strategy adoption

Network automation is a complex area of abstractions and principles built atop chains of other abstractions or fundamentals. For this reason, it can be tempting to lean on the lowest common denominator within the field – often the “lingua franca” of the tooling and framework buzzwords such as Terraform, Ansible, IaC, YAML, YANG and so on.

While countless types and competing network automation tools exist, this doesn’t always mean they’re developed for or relevant to your business’ specific issues. It’s also worth being mindful of “resume-driven development” here– while the “new shiny” might look great to your engineering and architecture teams, it doesn’t always mean it’s best for your business context, budget or other regulatory constraints.

Automation in isolation of process review and improvement

There’s a reason “garbage in, garbage out” is a phrase– automating the garbage to go faster doesn’t get rid of its existence. Automation often lives in the space between process and technology, so improvements in one can feedback into the other. Automation tends to inform improvements to existing business processes through its installation than for static business processes that were perfect all along.

The mere act of undergoing an automation journey can also be an exponential value-add when focusing on and improving business processes which would otherwise not have been explored. This ensures a double win from both optimising the business process itself and enables an extended reach of that into the network and IT plane, speeding up the process and improving its efficiency. This virtuous flywheel can often become a force-multiplier that tremendously benefits the organisation for relatively little upfront effort.

How can CACI help?

CACI’s expert team comprises multidisciplined IT, networking infrastructure and consultant and automation engineers with extensive experience in network automation. We can support and consult on every aspect of your organisation’s network from its architecture, design and deployment through to cloud architecture adoption and deployment, as well as maintaining an optimised managed network service.

To learn more about the impact of network automation and how to sell its value to the C-suite, please read our e-book “How to sell the value of network automation to the C-suite”. You can also get in touch with the team here.