REQID

New RM Tools

Mr. REQID — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:26:54 +0000

Been reviewing a lot of new RM tools the last month. Some are old standards and some are new kids on the block. Seems that there are two things going on at this time one lots of companies dropping DOORs and the new tools are looking more like social media.

PACE Word Interface Offline

Mr. REQID — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:43:14 +0000

No matter what tool you use when capturing requirements from a word document the capture is only as good as the document format. If the document is not in a consistent format its impossible for an automated tool to capture what you want in a consistent way. So the last thing i want to do is to capture a bunch of stuff into the database and then go back and clean it up. This just adds lots of requirements to the database that don’t need to be there yet.
So with the PACE Word Interface there is a way to work off line to reduce the amount of rework that happens in the tool itself.
To get it to work in the off line mode you first have to connect to the database with the document that you want to work with. Set your options for project, folder, attribute mapping and how you want to capture. Then capture one item manually. All you have to do now is disconnect for the database and you can auto capture off line. This allows you to review the capture and correct any thing before you commit the data to the database.
Its also a lot faster in this mode and you can upload it when you have time knowing that its all the right data. Just a requirements management tip from Mr. REQID

Cradle

Mr. REQID — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:28:54 +0000

Cradle is another capable requirements management tool designed to be a enterprise solution. Best suited for software projects but still very flexible. My main issue is that it uses a of the grid database that most people have never heard of. Best thing they could do is port it over to MySQL, Oracle, or MS SQL Server. One of the features that I do like is the Document generator. To day engineers spend way to much time formation documents most spend more time creating the document than writing the requirements.

What is a Baseline

Mr. REQID — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:30:49 +0000

When all of the Requirements have been reviewed by the stakeholders and approve a baseline set of requirements is established.
The baseline is the starting point for your planning of both time and cost. This is the starting point but as we know it will change. As we move forward with the project we will find things that we missed and needs may change. This is ok as long as you started with a good baseline. The baseline allows you to analyze the impact to your program for both cost and schedule to determine if a change is cost effective. Without the baseline as a starting point there is no way to determine what the impact will be.
The baseline forms the basis for all work performed on the project without limiting the possibility to explore arising opportunities.
Maintaining the approved baseline through all changes and amendments is generally the requirements manager responsibility. All to often I find that programs do not have a dedicated requirements manager and that It is left up to someone as a part time job.
Changes will come from stakeholder inputs and user priority changes. Users may think they know what they want but will spot deficiencies in Business Requirements and propose improvements based on new understanding of what they can do.
Maintaining a baseline requires that any proposed changes go through a formal change request process to insure that all stakeholders have reviewed them for impact on requirements baseline. This impact analysis review should identify any impact to , scope, schedule, cost, contract, and work in progress. The impact analysis may identify that further evaluation is required and a repetition of the Requirements Management Process.
Baselines are not static but are a changing thing, but they are a starting point to measure form. All races have a starting line and baselines are that for development projects.

Better Requirements thru Less Paper

Mr. REQID — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 11:20:53 +0000

As a Systems Engineer it is always a battle to get the design engineers to create requirements. They just want to get to the design part or yell to the heavens that its COTs and we don’t need Requirements. Either way when we do get to the requirements I find that a lot of people are more concerned about the document than they are about the requirements. We spend a huge amount of time and money formatting, reviewing, printing, signing, and delivering a document that is going to change.
Modern requirements tools give us the ability to share and track all changes with the stakeholders without ever having to print a document. Things like digital signatures also help in this paperless process.
Point is that we would end up with better products if we stopped putting so much effort into a paper document and used that effort to write better requirements.

CSV Files Not Created Equal

Mr. REQID — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:30:27 +0000

All CSV files are not the same. I just had a issue when working with a CSV export from another Requirements Management Tool was not importing correctly into PACE. It looked fine when we opened it in Excel to make sure the data was clean but we were having a problem with the column counts. Finally I watched them export the data and found that they were export to “Spreadsheet”. There was another option to export to MS Office > Excel. When we did the export that way and then opened it an saved as “MS Dos” .csv everything worked as it should.
So just remember that not all CSV files are created Equal.

Working With CSV Imports

Mr. REQID — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 12:15:18 +0000

No Mater what requirements tool you work with at some point you are going to be using Comma Separated Values (CSV) to import objects into your tool.

Most often you will open them in MS Excel to work the data. What i find is that excel tries to help you and reformats certain types of data. Just last week i had a data file from excel and some data that was in the following format xx-xx-xx. The data was OK in the excel file as the column was formated correctly. But upon saving it as a CSV for importing some of the data fell into what excel thought was a date and changed those to a date “7 July 2010″. As i need the data to be true what i had to do to fix this was.
Work in the excel format as a .xls and then save it as CSV, and here is the trick. After you save it as a CSV Do Not Reopen it. If you do excel will convert the data. You could open it in some thing like Note Pad and it will be OK but stay away for excel after you save it.

PACE Screen Real estate

Mr. REQID — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:50:21 +0000

As we all know when working with Web Based tools that screen real estate can be a bother and PACE is not different.
So two easy ways to get more is to increase your resolution some and to use the F11 function key to get ride of all of the browsing menu items.

This will give you a lot more screen to work with.

PACE 4.0 Beta

Mr. REQID — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:43:16 +0000

I am currently in the process of testing ViewSet’s PACE 4.0. This latest version is coming with some great upgrades that we have all been waiting for. Most noticeable is the compatibility with web browsers other than I.E. I can say that my initial testing has shown a speed increase using all of the browsers.

I have been testing with I.E. 8, Google Crome, FireFox, and Safari and all are working well in Beta. If you have done any web development you will understand the task at hand to get web apps to work in multiple browser environments. The team at Viewset are doing a great job of it.

Just to highlight some of the upgrades:

So for all of you Mac Fans out there you will be happy to know that it will work with the iPad but there are some things to work out with that like the ability to do Double Clicks and Right/Left Clicks. If anyone has a solution to that pass it to me and i will be sure to get it to the development team.

Configuration of your Configuration

Mr. REQID — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:03:55 +0000

Maintaining configuration of your product is always a challenge but keeping configuration of your requirements management tool can be even tougher. You have heard me talk about attribute creep in the past but attribute continuity is just as important. Naming conventions and continuity across requirement sets is just as important.
It bothers me greatly to see attributes duplicated across requirement sets named differently. This makes it difficult to write reports and is confusing to those that follow in your path.
So apply the same rigger in your CM of your requirements management tool as you would in managing your requirements.

Check out PACE requirements management tool at Viewset.com