NCIS Code Review
In Brief…
The National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS) is a whole-of-government federated information-sharing environment. With a large user group, as the platform approached deployment, they sought a code review of the software design and implementation plan.
CTO Consulting brought two highly experienced Java software developers into the project for a six-week review. The final report assessed the codebase's overall technical health and outlined opportunities to improve delivery efficiencies, estimation, and planning.
Background
The National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS) provides access to real-time criminal intelligence and information across state, territory, and federal jurisdictions via a user interface and system-to-system APIs. With a large user group, as the platform approached deployment, they sought a code review of the software design and implementation plan to confirm that it was ready for operational use. The project had a team of approximately 80 staff and an annual budget of over $50m.
A Phased Approach
CTO Consulting brought into the project two highly experienced Java software developers to conduct a six-week review of the delivery processes, structure, and implementation of the code in three phases:
A high-level review of code quality using style analysis, static code analysis and review of automated DevOps and testing controls.
A detailed code design and architectural alignment review, using a combination of a review of available design documentation, interviews with relevant technical leads, and a high-level inspection of code repositories, including a review of the overall structure and factoring of code, the patterns and templates used, and identified high-risk functionality.
A detailed code review, looking in depth at the identified areas of interest, the identified high-risk areas through code walkthroughs with developers to understand the intent of the code, alignment to design, understandability, as well as automated analysis to look at common or recurring anti-patterns and trendlines of code development metrics and practices.
A Clear Path Forward
The final report assessed the codebase's overall technical health and outlined opportunities to improve delivery efficiencies, estimation, and planning. It covered multiple criteria with a clear assessment of current capabilities, highlighting potential improvement areas.
This provided Home Affairs senior executives with confidence that they understood the strengths and weaknesses of the code base to be deployed and proposed a clear way forward that was used to guide decisions on resource allocation and prioritisation ahead of the broader deployment of the platform.
How CTO Consulting Works
Working with strong ethics on behalf of our customers is central to our way of working. We work in alignment with government policy and practices.
We maintained vendor independence when providing advice and recommendations to Home Affairs regarding the various vendors and products used in the development, and objective evaluations were made regarding the project's stated objectives and priorities.
We were careful to protect the confidentiality of the customer material and that of other agencies consulted. Access was only permitted to named staff who agreed with the customer holding the relevant security clearances. We ensured that such data was not taken off the network and was not permitted to be used for any other purpose.
A Sustainable Solution
CTO Consulting delivered sustainability through cost-effective delivery and collaboration throughout the review and in delivering artefacts containing all relevant information and guidance for effective decision-making against the recommendations and effective implementation of these into ongoing processes.
Home Affairs senior executives were briefed every two weeks about the project's progress, potential issues identified, and future work plans. The final report contained no surprises and could be readily understood and applied. It provided guidance and suggested improvements that would improve the efficiency and longevity of the NCIS system.