What's New

This section of our web site lists items new to our site since its launch in January 2004.  Its aim is to give you a preview of Alcyonix' activities.
IMPORTANT : Note that, in certain cases, the new items announced are linked to a date (e.g. a course) and that they could refer to a past activity and therefore are no longer pertinent.  The new items which are active and pertinent can be found on our  home page.
The new items are listed below in descending chronological order.

July 15, 2008

Alcyonix is happy to welcome 2 new employees who have joined the Montreal team.  We are proud of these two recent additions to our Canadian office.

Frédérick Lussier lives in Quebec City and recently joined Alcyonix in May. In his 15 years of professional experience, he has held positions as quality assurance manager and team leader in organizations like Silverrun, BaaN (Berclain), Amadeus Solutions, Pocatec and EXFO. He became a Personal Software Process (PSP) instructor at BaaN where he coached several software development teams using this process and has since become an avid supporter of PSP / TSP virtues. He has given several training courses in quality control, quality assurance, and software metrics at the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department of Laval University and in many CEGEPs. Frederick may be reached at +1 418 262-4175 or by email at Frederick.Lussier@alcyonix.com (visit experts for more info)

Gilles Charron is living in the Laurentians and has just joined the team on July 3rd. Most of his career (28 years) has been with CBC /Radio-Canada in Montreal during which he held the position of Operation, Project and Process Improvement Manager for over 14 years.  He was part of the corporate capital project portfolio strategic planning team and was involved in the implementation of the Project Management Office and the Process Improvement. Recently in the last 2 years, he played a key role as process group member and CMMI process designer in the Process Improvement Initiatives at L-3 MAS Maritime Helicopter Program (MHP), a company in the aeronautical sector. Gilles has also taught Project Management at the Master level at UQAM in Montreal and at HEC Montreal. Gilles can be reached at +1 514 606-5622 or via email at Gilles.Charron@alcyonix.com (visit experts for more info)

June 27, 2008

The CMMI-DEV Version 1.2 book in FRENCH, the complete version OFFICIALLY APPROVED by the SEI, is now available! Pearson Education France is closely related to Addison-Wesley, publisher of the English version which is offered to participants of our CMMI courses but also available in bookstores. Pearson Education France has now completely translated the Addison-Wesley book (often referred to as the “Blue Book”). Alcyonix (in particular Antoine Nardeze) was involved in the editing of the book. To order: www.pearson.fr but also available at specialized bookstores and websites.

January 7, 2008

Our 2008 calendar of "Introduction to CMMI V.1.2" courses is now available. In order to accommodate the growing number of CMMI users, we have extended our course offerings to include several cities. View course details.October 1, 2007

July 3, 2007

We are proud to announce that Alcyonix now has its first “High Maturity Lead Appraiser” for SCAMPI evaluations. In fact, one of our senior consultants, Denis St-Pierre recently succeeded in passing the SEI certification exam. This new accreditation allows us to conduct official Maturity Level 4 and 5 CMMI version 1.2 evaluations using the 1.2 version of the SCAMPI method. Along with the introduction of Version 1.2, the SEI has decided to establish a distinction between lead appraisers authorized to conduct evaluations up to level 3 and other levels (4 and 5). We intend to continue along this route with most of our lead appraisers in the very near future.

June 22, 2007

On behalf of my colleagues and as Director of the Montreal office, I'm happy to welcome our new Administrative Assistant, Ginette Morin. She may be reached at our usual number (+1 450 653 3533) or by email at Ginette.Morin@alcyonix.com. I also would like to wish the best of luck to our Assistant Gayle Campbell who is leaving us to move on to new challenges.
Richard Basque

May 17, 2007

Our fall 2007 calendar of CMMI courses is now available. In order to accommodate the growing number of CMMI users we have extended our course offerings to include several cities.

April 23, 2007

Alcyonix, the world renowned CMMI process improvement specialist, official SEI partner since 1998, and SQLI, the French pioneer of the CMMI, have joined forces to become the most important firm of CMMI experts in the field.
For more detail see the Press Release.
To learn more about SQLI, visit their web site.

December 1, 2006

Alcyonix was invited to give the first ever official CMMI course in Tunisia to 18 very motivated participants. It was our founder/president Richard Basque who had the honor and the pleasure to give this training. Several organizations in Tunisia have proven to be very interested in the CMMI. We are pleased that Alcyonix' experience and international involvement with the CMMI inspires confidence in this expanding country. The course was organized by AB Consulting's (www.consultab.com) team of enthusiastic professionals lead by their general manager Mr. Abdemajid Bouabdallah. Not only did they plan the CMMI course but they also successfully organized a mini course destined for students as well as a conference/debate on the synergy between the CMMI, ITIL and PMI in which close to 100 people participated. See photos of the course participants.

Capbreton (France), July 11 to 13, 2006

Alcyonix' team of experts had their first international meeting (Canada, France and Romania). Our picture shows a vacation-like atmosphere in Capbreton, in the splendid region of the French South-west (bordering the country of Basque). Our team worked with enthousiasm on internal projects aimed at better serving our current and future clients. You will hear echos of these new ideas in the coming months. In the meantime we wish all our clients and their families a happy and safe vacation.

June 13, 2006

With three SEI authorized instructors and the opening of an office in Romania, we have increased the number of Introduction to CMMI public courses and given you more choice of locations for the fall 2006 session. See our calendar for more information.

March 22, 2006

Richard Basque will be representing Alcyonix in June at the 2006 E-SEPG conference in Amsterdam. See our calendar for more information.

November 10, 2005

Alcyonix announced a new partnership with Sirius Services Conseils, an organization specializing in project management.  See today's press release.

September 6, 2005

Richard Basque’s article « Un cas exemplaire » (in French) has been published in the September 2005 issue Gartner France’s monthly magazine “l’Informatique Professionnelle” .The CMMI is rapidly becoming the best practices model being used worldwide. It is not only used to help organizations improve their internal development processes but also as a guide to help choose reliable suppliers with sturdy work processes.

May 31, 2005

Richard Basque, Founder and President of Alcyonix, launched the Montreal PMI’s(« Project Management Institute ») season with an exposé titled « Le fabuleux destin des chefs de projet sur la route du CMMI ». The CMMI is a model of best practices which encompasses all cycles of the development of systems projects. Through its STAGED representation the CMMI proposes progressive maturity based on 5 steps or levels to be applied within the framework of an organization and its development projects. A good part of these practices focus on project management. Mr. Basque presented the CMMI model as well as the changes at the project management practices level.

May 24, 2005

Toronto SPIN invited Alcyonix’ President, Richard Basque, to make a short presentation at its meeting on Monday May 30 as an introduction to Dr. Gargi Keeni of TCS (Tata Consultancy Services). Mr. Basque’s presentation introduced the use of the CMMI within the framework of initial evaluations (due diligence).

May 10, 2005

In Montreal, on May 10, 2005, Richard Basque (President), accompanied by Denis St-Pierre (Vice-president) described, using real-life examples, how certain organizations benefited from important strategic advantages thanks to the development and maintenance process improvement services given by Alcyonix. This presentation was given, in French, to an audience of almost 70, within the framework of one of the Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal – CRIM’s (www.crim.ca) privileged meetings.

May 3, 2005

On Tuesday May 3, Richard Basque and Antoine Nardèze made a presentation on the CMMI to over 40 software services organizations, all members of SYNTEC Informatique (www.syntec-informatique.fr). The presentation which was specifically targeted at development services providers, aroused much interest within this community. A copy of the presentation is available on our Publications page.

May 2, 2005

Richard Basque presented the CMMI to the information Systems Directors (ISD) and to their delegates at a meeting organized by CIGREF (www.cigref.fr) in Paris on Thursday April 28, 2005. CIGREF brings together software groups from the "Top 100" French and European organizations. Organizations such at Renault, Peugeot, EDF etc., were represented by delegates who showed their interest through their pertinent questions and by exchanging ideas on their best CMMI deployment strategies (most having already begun using the CMMI). A copy of the presentation is available on our Publications page.

February 24, 2005

Are you interested in learning about other people's practical interpretation and implementation challenges with the CMMI best practices? A focused newsgroup has been created with just this purpose. This group is moderated by Daniel Henry and run as a virtual “cruise” across all best practices of the model and will allow sharing of our respective experiences with the practices. To join, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmmicruise/ .

February 10, 2005

Alcyonix International opened Alcyonix France, its first office outside of Canada In order to better serve the European community we are happy to announce the creation, on January 1, 2005, of Alcyonix France (www.alcyonix.fr), a French chartered company headquartered near Toulouse.  Take note that Antoine Nardèze, director of Alcyonix France, and Alain Bret offer the same process improvement services as Alcyonix (training, evaluation, consulting and implementation). You can contact them at +33 (0)5 61 75 85 31 or by email at info@alcyonix.fr.

December 17, 2004

Alcyonix is proud to announce the confirmation of Daniel Henry as SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, authorized by the SEI. This increases Alcyonix number of SEI authorized SCAMPI Leads to three, in Canada (two others being Denis St-Pierre and Richard Basque). We would like to congratulate Daniel for this important achievement in his career as Senior Process Improvement Consultant. You can learn more about Daniel by consulting the Experts page of our web site. Feel free to congratulate him in person at Daniel.Henry@alcyonix.com.

September 14, 2004

On Monday September 13, Alcyonix reunited over sixty (60!!!) decision-makers from the IT domain at a VIP session at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in order to increase their awareness of development processes. Impressed by the number of participants from the various sectors of our industry, their enthusiastic interest in the subject, and with the comments received, Alcyonix can announce, without hesitation, that the day was a great success. A copy of the presentations is available here

Bienvenue_Welcome by R Basque

Why Improve Your Process by J Over

Bénéfices et Statistiques par D. St-Pierre

Témoignage d'un CIO de J-C Petitclerc

Un Modèle de bonnes pratiques par M Cloutier

SCAMPI by D Henry

Externalisation informatique par F Derail

PSP_TSP by D. Roy

Process Mobile Lab par R Basque

Conclusion par R Basque

June 16, 2004

Richard Basque has published a very interesting article in the March 2004 edition of the magazine Génie Logiciel from France. We invite you to read this article "Amélioration de processus : 10 bonnes raisons pour passer du CMM© au CMMI© ou un "iota" à forte valeur ajoutée", available in French only, under our menu Information / publications

May 28, 2004

Due to our rapid expansion, we have moved.
Our new address:
1494 Montarville, Suite 205
St-Bruno (Quebec) J3V 3T5
Our telephone and fax numbers will remain the same.

January 16, 2004

Daniel Henry, received his confirmation from the SEI that he successfully passed his SCAMPI Lead course. Alcyonix now has THREE SCAMPI Lead Appraisers authorized by the SEI!

January 15, 2004

Alcyonix had the pleasure of announcing a new addition to our team. Mr. Daniel Henry joined us as Senior Process Improvement Consultant. Daniel was previously working with the Motorola confirmed CMM Level 5 unit in Montreal and acquired a lot of experience with high maturity practices. We are therefore very proud to welcome him aboard! You can send him a message at Daniel.Henry@alcyonix.com.

December 12, 2003

A SCAMPI conducted by Alcyonix confirmed a CMMI Organizational Maturity Level of 2 for Orange Communications in Lausanne in Switzerland ("Technical Solutions").

December 5, 2003

Denis St-Pierre successfully passed the SEI-Authorized SCAMPI Lead Appraiser course and lead his first SCAMPI in February 2004.