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.

Filter

NYS DOH Medicaid Enterprise System — Governance Framework

IDR / KPMG · New York State Department of Health · 2024 – Apr 2026 · Governance
~7M
Program serves ~7M enrollees, NYS Medicaid
Context
A multi-year Medicaid Enterprise System modernization for the New York State Department of Health via IDR/KPMG. The NYS Medicaid program itself serves ~7M enrollees within a ~$31.7B state Medicaid Global Spending Cap (FY 2025) — program-scale context that shaped the governance framework required, not the IT engagement budget.
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
Delivered a comprehensive framework, approved by client leadership; handed off to client ownership for operationalization at their pace.
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, a ~$35.7M engagement with 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
A ~$28.3M 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 state-agency transformation at ~$28.3M program budget.

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. Program scoped at a ~$30M budget.
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.
Discuss the work

See an engagement that matches yours?

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
Engagement models See how I structure work