Engagement case studies

Engagements organized so you can browse by pillar, industry, or scale.

Each case study follows the same structure: Context, Challenge, Approach, Outcome, and the explicit pattern you'd inherit if you bring me in. That last line is the point — what you're actually buying when you hire me is the methodology, not the hours.

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NYS DOH Medicaid Enterprise System — Governance Framework

IDR / KPMG · New York State Department of Health · 2024–present · Governance
$1B+
Enterprise scale
Context
A multi-year Medicaid Enterprise System modernization across the largest state Medicaid program in the country, with federal HHS compliance obligations under 45 CFR.
Challenge
No defensible governance framework spanned the full scope: Business Policy, Program & Project Management, Vendor Management, and Enterprise / Business / Data / Security Architecture domains.
Approach
Three-tier body framework, COBIT 2019 alignment, intake and prioritization governance, defined decision authority per body.
Outcome
Comprehensive framework delivered and approved by client leadership; operationalization underway at client pace under their ownership.
What you'd inherit
A working three-tier governance body framework adaptable to any regulated enterprise IT environment.

City of Anaheim — IT Services Delivery

Perspecta · Account Executive · 2018 · Management
70+
Team members across five towers
Context
Account Executive for the City of Anaheim's outsourced IT services contract — full P&L responsibility for a multi-tower services operation.
Challenge
Coordinate delivery across business applications, datacenter, network & telephony, help desk, and procurement against a single contract obligation.
Approach
Service-tower leads reporting to a unified delivery cadence; capability assessment driving staffing; performance separate from capability evaluation.
Outcome
Stable, coordinated delivery across all five service towers with a single accountable leadership voice into the client.
What you'd inherit
A proven multi-tower delivery operating model and the capability-vs-performance discipline that prevents the most common services-team failure mode.

Washington State HCA — APD Process Re-engineering

Washington Health Care Authority · Dec 2016 – Dec 2018 · Analytics
55%
Process timeliness improvement
Context
The state Medicaid agency's APD development process for federal CMS funding requests was lagging deadlines, creating opportunity losses from funding gaps.
Challenge
Re-engineer a multi-stakeholder, multi-step process without disrupting in-flight submissions or the federal funding flow that depended on them.
Approach
Full Lean Six Sigma DMAIC cycle plus MITA EA framework; value stream analysis to identify dominant defect drivers; standardized templates replacing precedent-driven work.
Outcome
55% improvement in process timeliness; measurable staff productivity gains; replicable model structured for peer state agency adoption.
What you'd inherit
A full DMAIC workbook plus re-engineered process templates — proof that DMAIC produces measurable, defensible outcomes in regulated public-sector work.

Covered California — Hybrid Work Transformation

State of California · Program Manager · Mar 2021 – Jul 2022 · Management
90%+
Remote operations enabled
Context
$47M+ program transitioning California's health insurance exchange to a hybrid operating model supporting 90%+ remote operations.
Challenge
Multi-disciplinary coordination across infrastructure, application, security, facilities, HR, vendor, and change management workstreams toward one synchronized cutover.
Approach
Program management as a discipline distinct from project management; cross-project dependency tracking; SharePoint-based portfolio dashboards; structured executive reporting cadence.
Outcome
90%+ remote operations enabled, hybrid environment standing, transformation precedent informing other California state agencies.
What you'd inherit
A program portfolio dashboard, executive reporting cadence, and cross-workstream dependency tracking proven on a $47M-scale state-agency transformation.

SANDAG — ERP Readiness & Requirements Traceability

San Diego Association of Governments · Dec 2018 – Nov 2020 · Analytics + Governance
14
Business areas modeled and traced
Context
A regional planning agency preparing to procure an enterprise ERP that would replace fragmented finance, HR, procurement, and grants management capabilities.
Challenge
Produce current-state, future-state, gap analyses, and RFP-ready requirements with full traceability — defensible against vendor challenge and audit-survivable after award.
Approach
Cross-business-area requirements elicitation, BPMN current/future state modeling, weighted requirements traceability with explicit mandatory-vs-desirable gap separation.
Outcome
RFP-ready requirements with traceability surviving vendor evaluation; audit trail fed directly into the post-award contract.
What you'd inherit
An RFP Requirements Traceability Matrix proven at agency-ERP scale with weighted scoring and gap-analysis structure that defends to challenge.

California DHCS — IAM Security Domain Capability Mapping

California Department of Health Care Services · Feb 2024 – Jun 2024 · Analytics
IAM
Security Domain · MES ecosystem-wide
Context
Deep capability mapping of the Identity and Access Management Security Domain — which, because IAM spans the full Medicaid Enterprise System ecosystem, naturally reached across Child Support, TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid program lines.
Challenge
Produce executive-grade IAM capability evidence in a defensible analytical structure — capturing cross-program-line interdependencies, not just the domain in isolation.
Approach
TOGAF ADM + BizBok methods applied to the IAM domain; capability maps, value stream analyses, maturity assessment, investment prioritization quadrants across every MES program line IAM touches.
Outcome
Full IAM Security Domain capability mapping delivered to agency executive leadership in a format supporting actual investment decisions, with cross-program-line dependencies captured.
What you'd inherit
A BizBok-aligned capability mapping structure proven on a security-domain engagement with ecosystem-wide reach, with the prioritization quadrant that makes the map actionable.

ODJFS — Enterprise Architecture Governance

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services · EA Section Chief · Governance
5
Federal compliance domains
Context
EA Section Chief role inside a large state HHS agency administering CRIS-E and adjacent federally-funded systems under 45 CFR oversight.
Challenge
Inside-the-agency governance work — not consulting from outside — defensible under federal compliance review across Child Support, TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid program lines.
Approach
EA governance integrated with federal compliance frameworks (MITA, TOGAF); documented policy alignment and federal-state coordination mechanisms.
Outcome
EA governance defensible under federal compliance review; technical standards aligned across program lines without losing the federal funding flow.
What you'd inherit
EA governance model proven inside a regulated agency context, including federal-state coordination patterns outside consultants rarely capture correctly.

Hyundai Capital — Agile Delivery Management

Hyundai Capital America · Project Manager · Jun 2015 – Jan 2017 · Management
2 sides
Onshore + offshore matrixed Agile
Context
Enterprise application development for a captive auto-finance company — Vehicle Pricing Scenario Tool supporting competitive market pricing.
Challenge
Coordinate matrixed onshore and offshore Agile Scrum teams against competitive-pricing-driven deadlines with measurable process quality.
Approach
Scrum cadence across distributed teams; applied DMAIC to optimize the user-story-development process itself.
Outcome
Automated pricing tool delivered to production; optimized user-story process feeding sustained distributed delivery cadence.
What you'd inherit
A distributed Agile delivery operating model with measurable process discipline — preventing the typical onshore-offshore velocity loss at handoff.
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If one of these case studies maps to a problem you're facing, let's talk about what would actually work in your environment.

Email rjames@s1techconsulting.com
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