City of Seattle launched the integrated Accela Civic Application that administers permitting, licensing, inspections and compliance programs. Optima provided the project management services on behalf of the Seattle Information Technology Department to migrate the on-premises infrastructure to Accela’s SaaS solution on Microsoft Azure platform.
On July 15, 2024, Optima has successfully completed the deployment of the integrated Accela Civic
Application that administers permitting, licensing, inspections and compliance programs forCity of
Seattle.In March 2023, Optima was contracted by the Seattle Information Technology Department to
manage the migration of the on-premises infrastructure to the vendor’s SaaS solution on Microsoft
Azure platform.
Project: City of Seattle Accela SaaS Migration
Role: Program Manager
Client: Seattle Information Technology Department
Period: March 2023 – July 2024
To complete this migration to the SaaS environment, Optima’s services included:
Lead the project from initiation to closeout incorporating project management principles, best
practices and the City’s established IT project delivery processes.
Revise the existing City contract with Accela to update requirements for Payment Card Industry
(PCI), Cybersecurity and American Disability Act (ADA)
Migrate the current application to Accela’s SaaS solution – a “lift and shift”
Collaborate with in-flight projects and operational efforts to understand dependencies and
develop a comprehensive implementation plan/schedule for the migration.
Lead the project team in ensuring effective mechanisms are in place to manage project scope,
schedule, quality, budget; and risk identification, mitigation, and issue resolution.
Lead the project team in ensuring effective mechanisms are in place to manage project scope,
schedule, quality, budget; and risk identification, mitigation, and issue resolution.
Develop, manage, and track progress against the project schedule.
Collaborate with project sponsors, steering committee, teams, business SMEs, City’s vendors,
and other key stakeholders to ensure project progresses as planned.
Manage the spend plan for the project, updates the Steering Committee on monthly basis on
actual vs. budget spending, and provides budgetary forecasts as necessary.
Prioritize and manage resource allocation based on required schedule and deliverables based on
the business priorities for the project.
Coordinate activities within the project team; ensure team building, team performance, conflict
resolution and escalates issues if necessary.
Ensure project management artifacts are created and maintained. This includes a detailed
project schedule, communication plans, project RAID, change log; spend plan, and resource
plans; meeting minutes; project status reports.
Ensure successful project go-live, stabilization and operational support transition plans.