Customer Spotlight: Welcome to GrapeCity.

November 25, 2008 – 10:18 am

GrapeCity, an award-winning software development firm, offers a variety of services to help its clients develop new products and achieve their business goals.  GrapeCity’s client list includes global brands such as Microsoft, Accenture, Sony, Procter & Gamble, Intel, Mitsubishi, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson.  

GrapeCity specializes in two kinds of projects. First, they work with companies that have ideas for new applications, but have not had a chance to thoroughly define their vision and requirements. Through GrapeCity’s standard processes and iterative development models, GrapeCity helps its clients develop new products that meet their vision.

Second, they proudly work with what they call “burn victims”, organizations that have experienced the pain of previous project failures.   And, can’t we all relate to that?

Usually these failures result from poor processes, a lack of understanding of the vision of the product, or too much emphasis placed on technical coding.  In these cases, GrapeCity reviews the status of projects, pinpoints the causes of failure, and provides remedies to rescue projects hanging on the edge and bring them to successful completion.

With offices around the world, GrapeCity chose Contour because it needed a powerful solution that was Web-based and easily adopted by team members working in different offices, time zones and countries.

GrapeCity now uses Contour to manage the requirements of all their development projects.   With Contour, the learning curve for new users is very fast – in just a few hours of training, they are ready to go.

“In today’s day and age, teams are geographically distributed all over the world. There is a clear need for a requirements management tool that has a rich yet lightweight client that users can use to collaborate. Jama clearly gets it. They understand how a requirements tool should work, ” says, Devinder Singh Josan, Vice President of Engineering at GrapeCity.  Learn more about GrapeCity’s products & services >

Want more info on Contour?

Watch the guided tour video to see how fast, easy and effective Web-based requirements management can be.

By John | Posted in Company, Customers, Requirements Management, innovation | Tagged case study, Customers, Grapecity, innovation, Jama Contour, Requirements Management, web-based requirements management | Comments (0)

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What’s the value of requirements management in a down economy?

November 18, 2008 – 6:21 pm

You open a newspaper, turn on the TV, surf the Web – the news is dominated by the economic downturn.  Is it a worldwide financial crisis? Is it a bona fide recession?  How long will it last?  Who knows.  All I know is that you can’t escape it.  In one way or another, it affects us all.

As a smart business, the bigger questions are:  How can you thrive during tough times?  Do you cut spending? Do you freeze budgets?  Do you take a wait and see approach? Isn’t that what other companies are doing?

If you listen to the financial wizard Warren Buffett or follow the contrarian path of several innovative companies, they do just the opposite.  It makes sense really.  When others are cutting back because of economic fears, they see this as an opportunity to create value by increasing investments in areas that can fuel growth and create operational efficiencies for their businesses - from technology to processes to new product development.

As Mr. Buffett likes to say, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.â€

So, how does this relate to our world of software product development?  More specifically, what’s the value of requirements management - or any tool for that matter - in a down economy?

In theory, an investment in a requirements management tool will create efficiencies, eliminate costly errors and ensure higher quality products.  But is that just theory, or does it hold up in the real world?  The only way to find out is to explore it for yourself.

To help though, we’ve done the math using an ROI model developed for Software Quality Engineering (Stickyminds.com) by Richard Denney, a well-respected industry expert.  Based on a team of 10 active users and 10 stakeholders, with 2,500 requirements (500 of which are implemented in the 1st year) and industry averages for a few other variables, the model shows you can achieve $300,000 in cost savings with a requirements management tool in the first year versus not using one at all; creating a 4:1 cost-to-benefit ratio.

Now, requirements management won’t make headline news, but the return on investment both immediate and long-term can be significant - if done well.  And, if you think about it, that’s exactly the kind of unsexy, penny-wise investment that a Mr. Buffet-like investor might consider.

Make the penny-wise case for RM at your company:

Download the Requirements Management ROI Analysis (.pdf)

Learn about the Contour Team Package and how to save 40%

Note: If you’d like the Excel version of the ROI model to play with the variables, just email me.

By John | Posted in Requirements Management, Trends | Tagged Contour, economy, Jama, John, Requirements Management, ROI, Team Package, Warren Buffett | Comments (0)

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The 5 Signs You Know You Need Web-based Requirements Management.

November 17, 2008 – 11:11 am

If you’re like 80% of companies, you’re still using documents, spreadsheets and email to manage product requirements.  It’s easy enough.  You fire up Microsoft Word, you start writing your Software Requirements Specification (SRS) or the Product Requirements Document (PRD).  When you’re done, you email it to the team, maybe post the content up on a Wiki or in a document management system.  No problem, right?

What happens when change occurs and the document is 200-pages long because what you’re building is a complex software product?  When do you reach the tipping point of needing a specialized solution for managing all the requirements and scope of what you’re building?

In the vein of a classic Cosmo article, here are the 5 tall tale signs you know you need an extreme make-over.  Umm, sorry, we mean you need Web-based requirements management…

1. Complexity.

Rule of thumb:  The more complex the project, the greater the need.

The complexity of software products is doubling every 2-3 years.  If you’re managing development projects with hundreds or thousands of requirements, you’re ready.

Benchmark:  72% of teams have projects that have at least 100+ requirements.  For 5% of companies, their average project has over 5,000 requirements.

2. Team Size Matters.

Rule of thumb:  The bigger the team, the greater the need.

If you’ve ever worked on a large team, you know that keeping everyone on the same page is a never-ending challenge.  If your team exceeds 10 or includes someone as disorganized as me, you’re ready.

Benchmark:  Over 40% of teams have at least 25 members and stakeholders.

3. Location, Location, Location.

Rule of thumb:  The more geographically distributed you are, the greater the need.

Teams today are virtual, working from offices in different time zones and countries.  If 10% of more of your team is virtual, you’re ready.  The single whiteboard of requirements and development tasks on sticky notes just won’t work anymore.

Benchmark:  Over 60% of teams have at least 10% of their team working in different locations.

4. Change Happens.

Rule of thumb:  The more change you have to manage through, the greater the need.

Requirements aren’t “artifacts”, that would imply they don’t change.  Requirements in today’s world are alive - they grow, they change, they evolve over time.  Managing revision after revision of requirements specification documents is painful, both for the author and the recipients trying to decipher what changed.  If you spend 10% or more of your week dealing with changes to requirements, you’re ready.

Benchmark: Over two-thirds of teams spend at least 10% of their time just managing changes to requirements.

5. The Other “F” Word - Failure.

Rule of thumb:  The lower the success rate, the greater the need.

Don’t worry, this isn’t group therapy, we all know the historical failure rates for software projects.  If your last project didn’t end well, then you already know you’re ready.

Benchmark:  Three out of four teams have a success rate of 60% or less, so you’re not alone.

Note: these benchmarks are from the industry survey data available in the 2008 State of Requirements Management Report.

So, how did you score?

If you’re experiencing 2 or more of these signs, then it might be time to explore using a specialized product requirements management tool.  There are a few 3rd-party sites that provide the full list of tools available:   Laatuk, INCOSE, and Jiludwig.

At Jama, we can help you with product requirements management.  Now, when it comes to the Cosmo extreme make-over, you’re on your own.

By John | Posted in Requirements Management | Tagged Jama Contour, product management, Requirements Management, web-based requirements management | Comments (0)

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Overdue Welcome Aboard

October 24, 2008 – 7:45 am

Jama has had a busy, but exciting summer with several new releases of Contour, our product management and requirements management solution - as well as adding many new customers.  We’ve fallen behind on announcements, so I wanted to post a quick welcome to some of our recent customers around the world.

Welcome aboard:

Wells Fargo - Named a top 10 innovator in online finance

Jeppesen / Boeing - Industry leader in aviation and navigation information systems

Virgin Media - Digital media, broadband and mobile phones

ING Clarion- Real Estate investment and management

Merck - Global pharmaceutical leader

Gematik - Creating digital health care solutions for the 80m citizens of Germany

Utiba - Software for mobile devices

Fluid - Brilliant online retail software

Brunel - Research University based in the UK

Eniro - Leader in search in the Nordic market

VNet Software - Managed outsourced software development

Telepacific - Local exchange carrier with 25,000 miles of fiber optic cable

Port of Antwerp - Managing over 16,000 ships and 65,000 barges annually

Multnomah County - Managing services delivered to the 750,000 people living in the County

InScope - Software consulting firm delivering Federal and commercial solutions

IntraPace - Surgical devices to control obesity

GrapeCity - Global provider of software, services and business solutions

ProLogic - Software design, engineering and testing services

By Eric | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

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Digitizing the Dashboard

October 24, 2008 – 6:32 am

I saw that another one of our customers has posted videos of their product in action.  Vertical Power creates  digital dashboards for aircraft which replaces traditional control sets to display the most critical during each phase of flight.  While we don’t have any pilots on staff at Jama, it’s very cool technology.

Here is a brief writeup on their product in Flying Magazine.

By Eric | Posted in Customers, Eric, innovation | Comments (0)

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Innovation at SMART

October 23, 2008 – 7:06 am

Gizmodo is a great source for new, innovative (and not so innovative - how many ipod docks do we really need?) products.  They keep our team up to date on the latest gadgets.  Gizmodo just posted on the SMART table, which utilizes the multitouch interface for kids which looks like a pretty cool idea.

It’s always exciting for us to see our customers innovating and creating great new products.

This page contained an embedded video. Click here to view it.

Our team was down in the bay area earlier this summer and saw another very cool implementation of multi-touch at Autodesk labs where they had created a giant “touch wall” that they used at the TED conference.  They’ve posted some information at their labs site.

By Eric | Posted in Eric | Tagged innovation | Comments (0)

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Announcing Jama Contour v2.4: Building great software products just got a little easier.

September 25, 2008 – 11:38 am

Each year in the U.S. alone, over $30 billion is wasted on failed software development projects.  And, the major causes for why these projects fail consistently tie back to requirements management.

Jama Software’s mission is to eliminate that failure by enabling companies to take a more collaborative, customer-driven approach to product planning and development.

The latest release of Contour, Jama Software’s powerful Web-based application, is now available.  You can see it in action through the videos and try it out for yourself.Contour Guided Tour Video

The focus of Contour and this release specifically centers around three key benefits:

Speed - Cut your product planning and requirements management cycles in half Alignment - Keep your entire team in sync and connected to the needs of your customers throughout the development process Quality - Reduce costly errors and ensure high quality product releases on time and within scope

Our product roadmap is driven by the feedback of our customers, and we appreciate all the insights that led to the enhancements we made to Contour v2.4.  Check out what’s new and let us know what you think.

You can join the discussion and share your thoughts in our online customer forum:  Jama Backstage

By John | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Contour videos, Jama Contour, jama software, product launch, product planning, Requirements Management, requirements reuse, requirements traceability, software product development, team collaboration | Comments (1)

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Building the Web 2.0 enterprise - The McKinsey Global Survey Results are out.

July 30, 2008 – 10:48 am

Not surprising, companies are using more Web 2.0 tools and technologies now than they were last year. The latest survey results from The McKinsey Quarterly on “Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise” illustrate the growing investments in Web 2.0 technologies.

The shifts that are occurring are in how and where Web 2.0 tools are being applied. Previously, Web 2.0 tools were viewed as “experimental” projects, but now companies are adopting them as part of broader business practices, using them to manage core business initiatives such as fostering collaboration across the company and developing products or services.

One of the conclusions the report draws is that, “Successful companies already use Web 2.0 for business applications such as communicating with customers and suppliers; soon they may use it to drive innovation.”

This is a trend we’re seeing first-hand at Jama. There’s a growing need at enterprise organizations to connect up the different tools where product ideas, features and discussions are captured and to sync up these different sources together with the tools, such as Contour, that teams use to plan and develop their product releases.

To get the full report, go here: “McKinsey Global Survey Results: Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise”.

By John | Posted in Trends | Tagged collaboration, innovation, John, Product Development, research, Trends, web 2.0 | Comments (1)

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The State of Requirements Management Report - over 1,500 downloads and counting…

July 30, 2008 – 9:52 am

What’s the link between requirements management and product innovation? Where are companies getting their next great product ideas? What are the real challenges and barriers to success? Agile, Waterfall, Iterative - which processes are teams really using?

These are a few of the questions we explored in a recent survey with product managers, project managers, business analysts, development directors and executives responsible for the planning and development of new software products and systems at their respective companies.

Download the full report, “The 2008 State of Requirements Management Report” and discover the latest trends in software product development.

A snapshot of the findings:

Challenges: There’s no substitute for fundamentals. The top 3 challenges to innovation were: gaining a clear understanding of customer needs, documenting all the requirements and ensuring what’s being built is what was planned. Metrics: Which success metric is most important? Revenue? Buzz? Time to market? Customer satisfaction is #1 to business analysts and project managers; revenue was most important to product managers and executives. Team alignment to same goals and metrics is key. Risks: Beware of scope creep. Scope creep tops the list as the #1 cause for project failure. Followed closely by “missed or poorly defined requirements†and “unrealistic schedules and expectationsâ€. Processes: There’s a lot of mojo around Agile processes, in fact we use a modified Agile process ourselves, but only 6% of organizations have shifted to being a pure Agile shop. Most organizations are using a mix of processes, so it’s important that the tools you use be flexible to work for different processes. Tools: Over 80% of professionals still manually use MS Office to capture and communicate requirements using basic documents and spreadsheets. When you think about it, those are the same tools our kids use to do their homework. However, when asked which tools they plan to use or would like to use this year, Requirements Collaboration and Management tools top the list.

Join over 1,500 other professionals and download your free copy of the report.

Let us know what you think. Are the survey results surprising in anyway? Does the report validate things you already knew? How do these trends map to what you’re doing at your company?

By John | Posted in Requirements Management, Trends | Tagged business analyst, challenges, jama software, John, metrics, product innovation, product management, Project Management, ravenflow, Requirements Management, research, software product development, tools, Trends | Comments (0)

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Social networking is not innovation management.

June 30, 2008 – 10:47 am

There’s been much attention recently given to social networking and collaboration as it applies to the business process of innovation. It’s fueled by a growing crop of companies that are adopting a more open innovation model and inviting their communities of customers, partners and employees to participate in the process of sharing ideas, discussing them and voting on their favorites.

The potential benefits to a company can be huge:

Greater alignment with customers Faster product development cycles Reduced R&D costs

Dell’s Ideastorm and Starbuck’s “My Starbucks Idea” are two well-publicized examples of online customer communities designed to foster collaboration around new product ideas. Both of these brands have successfully grown web sites with hundreds of thousands of participants and ideas. So, when given the platform to speak up, people are more than willing to participate.

Sounds like a windfall, right? Build a community site and poof you’re the next great innovative company…not so fast…

Social networking alone isn’t innovation management. Ideation is an important step, but it is just the front-end of the innovation funnel. This growing trend of online idea sharing is exciting but it’s raising some questions into how to best apply the valuable (but unstructured) input from customer communities and social networks into the complex product development process:

Are the most popular ideas the most lucrative ones for the company to pursue? If misapplied, can the wisdom of crowds actually lead an organization to the wrong decision? Does the input from the community site replace traditional R&D? How can internal product teams effectively connect the ideas and feedback from the community to the other downstream steps of the product planning and development process?

Here’s a recent article that highlights some of the challenges:
http://www.innovationtools.com/Articles/EnterpriseDetails.asp?a=332

Our opinion: Whereas the focus recently has been on the creation of customer communities, we believe the focus now will naturally shift to solving the bigger challenge of how to best manage this new channel of customer input and apply it to the internal process of developing new products. The companies that get this right will be the ones that realize the greatest financial benefits.

What’s your opinion? Post a comment and let us know your thoughts.

By John | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged collaboration, innovation, innovation management, Product Development, social networking, wisdom of crowds | Comments (2)

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