alm

JIRA Integration With Effortlessly and Seamlessly

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:12:02 +0100

In the software development process, the software development team uses several tools for improving the quality and efficiency of the products and for maximizing productivity and timely delivery. Some of these tools include Requirements Management tools, Test Management tools, Issue Management tools, Risk Management tools, Release Management tools, Document Management tools, and IT Project Management tools. Hence, one of the daunting tasks faced by both local and global organizations is with respect to integration. Take for instance JIRA. JIRA is a proprietary issue-tracking product developed by Atlassian for bug tracking, issue tracking and project management. Hence, the software development team needs good adapters or integration platform to integrate JIRA easily and effortlessly. This helps to resolve integration problems and enable project team to work smoothly. Here is a look at some of the benefits of deploying best of the breed adapters or integration platform for JIRA integration.

Allows project teams to work on issues from within their preferred tool environment
Automates actions on issues resulting from other integrated tools
Ensures visibility across tools, traceability and micro-level process automation

An integration platform allows organizations to use tools that they own such as Doors for requirement management, Clear Case for configuration management, and Quality Center for test management, or can use custom-made, homegrown products to support various application lifecycle phases by integrating them through an integration platform. This ensures cross-lifecycle transparency, macro and micro-level processes automation and correspondence of activities across disciplines.

Consider a situation where the software development team needs to integrate Atlassian JIRA and IBM Rational Request. With a best of the breed integration platform, the software development team can:

Gain greater insight into the progress and quality of application development
Enact best practice processes across software development life cycle stages to ensure strict process adherence and achieve consistency, repeatability and predictability
Overcome challenges for globally distributed development by connecting tools across geographies
Foster collaboration between stakeholders even when they are using different tools to accomplish their tasks
Achieve measurable productivity gain for individuals and teams. Deliver faster
Enhance customer satisfaction by breaking down the developer/customer barrier, enabling rapid delivery of customer-driven value and improving overall delivery quality
Obtain actionable metrics and intelligence through data aggregation across integrated application development lifecycle tools to make smart decisions influencing cost, quality and time
Manage change with confidence by establishing end-to-end multi-directional traceability between the lifecycle artifacts and deliverables coming from different Application Lifecycle Management - ALM tools Plug any tool from any vendor any time to your integrated tools ecosystem and follow your best practice process irrespective of the tools chosen.

Thus by collaborating with best of the breed solution providers, enterprises can ensure seamless and effective JIRA integration.

Bettering Customer Relationships with ITSM Solutions

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:58:10 +0100

Today’s enterprises though globally present face a highly competitive business climate wherein the role of technology effects their success. Though these enterprises are technologically sound need to survive through an aggressive competitive environment with high levels of customer satisfaction. Any failure on the enterprise's critical server, an employee’s laptop or mobile device significantly impacts employee productivity and the enterprise's bottom line. The enterprises thus need to maintain good customer satisfaction by responding quickly to service requests and proactively managing the IT infrastructure.

To achieve this increasingly important IT function, organizations need to deploy effective ITSM solutions. However, the IT services of these organizations are also challenged to reduce cost, deliver quality services in tune to the business goals and objectives, enhance service efficiency and boost return -on-investment. Lack of infrastructure visibility caused by complexity of the IT infrastructure and an increasing number of infrastructure changes would create havoc for the enterprises. These challenges have paved way for enterprises to shift from technology oriented IT management to services oriented IT management.

Wikipedia refers ITSM solutions to the implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business. Generally performed by the IT service providers through an appropriate mix of people, process and information technology, ITSM is defined as a discipline for managing information technology systems, centered around the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business and provides a workflow based configurable global platform for implementing ITSM processes across multiple organizations and geographic locations.

The IT service management software from the leading service providers is a web-based one. This provides enterprises with numerous IT service management tools through a single solution and includes requirement management tool, incident management, and problem and change management. Being web based this anywhere-anytime IT Service Management tools are available as built-in application for the software development life cycle. This would provide them a workflow based configurable platform for implementing IT service management across geographically distant locations and multiple organizations. An ideal ITSM solution is one that will not only ensure quality and agility but also efficiently align IT service operations with the business goals.

The ITSM solutions from the leaders in the industry have world class ITSM tools with web-architected framework accessible through the internet and with input methods such as word documents, emails, web portals or any third party tools synchronized in real-time mode. Some of the functional applications of these ITSM solutions include:

ITSM Service Desk or IT Help Desk solution
Requirements traceability matrix tool ensures entity relations across various in-built applications.
Facilitates complete IT process automation of the in-built applications
Availability of HTML, dashboard and crystal reporting options

Such single solution with the required built-in applications for ITSM works out advantageous for SME's as well as large business houses in building better customer relationships.

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JIRA Integration
Traceability matrix

Save Time, Money and Effort with Requirements Traceability Matrix

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:04:45 +0100

Wikipedia defines traceability matrix as “a document, usually in the form of a table that correlates any two baselined documents that require a many-to-many relationship to determine the completeness of the relationship.” Also known as Requirements Traceability Matrix or RTM it is a kind of a map that helps to locate information easily. In short, with a traceability matrix, the software development team can assure themselves that each and every approved requirement has been addressed properly.

Each phase in a software development life cycle has its own importance with requirement analysis being a critical factor to the success of a software project .The purpose of RTM is to map relationships between requirements and other related requirements, between business needs and corresponding requirements and between requirements and various deliverables. Karl Weigers, a famous author and software consultant, in his book ‘Software Requirements’ writes about different means of managing requirements for a software or systems project. According to him, a requirement may be traced in one of four distinct ways,

* “Customer needs are traced forward to requirements, so that you can tell which requirements will be affected if those needs change.

* Conversely, you can trace backward from requirements to customer needs to identify the origin of each software requirement.

* You can trace forward from requirements by defining links between individual requirements and specific product elements.

* Specific product elements [may be traced] backward to requirements so that you know why each item was created.”

The traceability matrix contains elements such as project name, project manager name, project description, customer needs, functional requirement, status, design document, technical specification, system components, software modules, test case number, tested in, implemented in, verification and so on.

With so many best of the breed requirements management tools available that provide traceability matrix view, software development team can easily get a complete visual representation of the entity items that are linked to one another by means of the relationships. With this traceability matrix, the user can choose a relation first and based on the relation selected, the user can choose customized filters for each of the entity associated with the relation that imposes a level of filtration of the linked records. The records of one entity are displayed row-wise while those of others are displayed column-wise.

Additionally, over the filtration imposed, the user can select the records that he/she would like to display. The available options are: All, All with the orphans (having no linked records using this selected relation) highlighted only orphans, and Records that have linked records only.

As this matrix allows the user to create new, edit, delete relationships and clear impacts from the matrix itself, software development team can easily ensure that the customer gets what one has requested. Besides, they save time, money and effort which would have otherwise lost due to duplicate research, backtracking and lost business needs.

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JIRA Integration

ALM

Solutions at Hand with IT Help Desk Software

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:05:33 +0100

Technological evolutions over the years have changed the way enterprises conduct business operations. The widespread use of the internet today has led most of the enterprises to move towards e-commerce and online markets to offer their products and services. Though offered with the help of technology it still can bring about issues which are either technology related or product related.

The large conglomerates have their IT professionals who with their expertise reach out to help the customers as far as technology is concerned. In case of the small and medium enterprises, the customer issues are generally handled with the use of help desk solutions. With most enterprises having an IT enabled business environment, the help desk is “single point of contact for users to receive help on any product related or technology related issues.

Even small issues may have a serious impact on the business continuity and loss of brand reputation. Hence setting up an IT help desk software is an important aspect in today's competitive and techno savvy business environment. Such help desk solutions will help enterprises reap benefits of not just fixing problems and preventing them but also pave way for effective service request management.

The leading service providers in the industry that offers best of the breed of IT help desk software to the enterprises, enables requests submitted by customers to be customized and managed by teams as per the service request management work flow. Further by linking the multiple IT service requests to an incident, ensures closure of all the dependent requests when the linked incidents are closed. The IT help desk software defines implements, enforces and automates the help desk processes while playing double role as per the environmental conditions. The built-in computation capability of the software makes way for automatic Service Level Agreement (SLA) calculations and allows for real-time calculations of various graphical and textual metrics.

One important abilities performed by the help desk software is a tracking. Tracking allows customers, employees, and administrators to follow help desk efficiently. The IT Help desk solution not only provides benefits through resolving technological issues during any application lifecycle management but also ensures efficient customer service to their clients and users leading to a favourable brand image.

Efficient customer service being crucial for the enterprises, the IT help desk works as a a medium to manage, report and resolve concerns identified by consumers and also acts as a marketing tool for ITSM Solution in government departments or business. Irrespective of the issues faced being minute errors or major failures, the IT help desk software enables the employees to fix these it. Further, it seamlessly integrates help desk with other components of IT Service Management including Change Management and Release Management.

Application Lifecycle Management – A Configurable Global Platform

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:20:48 +0100

The highly competitive business environment has led the enterprises to make use of every technological innovation that is made available. However, as customers gain awareness about the technological innovations and upgrading, there arises a demand for better and faster applications, products and services. To keep pace with the ever-changing customer demands against the time required to complete a software development lifecycle is a challenge for the enterprises

Technological innovations over the years have facilitated the development of solutions to help the enterprises meet these challenges without any compromise on quality. Further, developing solutions for complex business applications requires efficient software development life cycle. By coordinating business management and software engineering, along with software architecture, coding, testing systems and release management enterprises can be assured of efficient software development process.

The application lifecycle management being a continuous process helps to manage the lifecycle of any applications through its development, maintenance, governance and compatibility stages and helps the enterprises to overcome the complexities in application delivery. The business value of the application is however dependent on all the aspects. The governance extends over the entire application lifecycle and includes decision-making and project management. Development in an application’s lifecycle includes creation of multiple upgrades and newer versions whereas operation refers to the work required to run an application.

To meet the ever-changing customer demands the global enterprises require world class IT infrastructure loaded with best-of-the-breed applications. Further, to facilitate a smooth functioning of all the applications in the networked environment, the enterprises need to make use of efficient IT service management tools and Help desk solutions.

The application lifecycle management system offered by the leading service providers has an automated management system that has the ability to incorporate traditional and agile methodology. For the enterprises with offshore locations and working through distant teams, the ALM solutions can be integrated with requirements management, test management, risk management as well as project management. Such integrations not only make it easy for implementing the software development lifecycle but also provide the teams an easy access to the vital corporate data.

The application lifecycle management solutions offered by the leaders in the industry are web based solution that not only enables multiple input methods also allows to import files from other document formats. Further, this provides a rich and configurable global platform for implementing a software development life cycle collaborate on the entire development cycle and tracing implementations giving the global enterprise a competitive edge, increases productivity levels and improves business prospects.

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Traceability matrix

Significance of the Requirement Traceability Matrix

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:19:22 +0100

A requirement traceability matrix is the mapping of requirements for test cases. There are two key aspects of traceability, backward and forward. Hence, it is crucial to know whether all the requirements that are mentioned in the requirement document has a got a corresponding test case. Furthermore, it is also crucial to know which requirement a certain test case has been written for.

However, the purpose of the requirements traceability matrix can be listed as the following:

* To make sure that a particular test case is based on one more than one requirements that are mentioned in the Requirement Doc

* To determine which of the test cases are written for which requirements

* To check whether the test cases are written for each and every requirement

* If there is any dispute owing to a bug in which the developer is of the opinion that it's not as per the design in the test case, then the test can be tracked back to the requirement

* It assists to find out how many test cases are impacted whenever there is any change in an application

Today service providers specializing in agile methodology have introduced innovative requirement traceability matrix. This matrix lets you choose a relation first and then owing to the selected relation, you can choose personalized filters for every entity related to the relation that imposes a filtration level of the linked records. The records of one entity can be highlighted row-wise and the other in column-wise. Furthermore, over the filtration impose you are able to choose the records that you would prefer to display. Some of the options available are:

* All

* Highlighted

* Records that have linked records only

Therefore, advanced requirement traceability matrix offers a comprehensive visual representation of the entity items that are associated with one another with the help of relationships. Utilizing this matrix you can create new, edit, delete relationships by double clicking on the cell that comes at the intersection of the two entity item. It is impossible to deliver a project until all its requirements are covered. Requirements traceability matrix covers the business rules as well as determine the quality and completeness of the end user application. It is also an essential aspect in software engineering and is a crucial element that a QA, developer, architect should update accordingly.

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Agile Methodology

JIRA Integration

Creating Satisfied Customers with Help Desk Solutions

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 06:56:50 +0100

Today's business enterprises face everyday challenges of staying ahead in the face of cut-throat competition. In order to do so, it is foremost important for today’s businesses to provide stellar customer service by optimizing the help desk environment and providing for an efficient, cost effective, web based customer focused support. Wikipedia defines help desk as an information and assistance resource for troubleshooting problems with products. With technology involved, help desk support are provided to customers either through toll-free numbers, emails or website log-ins.

However, with technological enhancements and its wide use in every aspect of the business world, today’s help desk support is not just another IT service management tool and extends beyond providing technical support for IT infrastructure issues to being a single point of contact for more broadened aspects and covers various services. To attend to a variety of service requests demands for a more organized format of working. The help desk solutions and requests are managed with the help of help desk software. This software facilitates tracking of the issues through a unique number assigned to user requests and are differentiated either as departmental or enterprise level needs.

The e-commerce and World Wide Web providing opportunities for enterprises both large and small to make their presence on the web, has led to an increasing need for help desk programs that can be accessible through these online webstores. Such help desk solutions provides the customers to receive online service support which leads to enhanced customer satisfaction, customer loyalty status and increased revenue besides maintaining good customer relationships.

Further, the web based help desk software with the feedback forms facilitates as a forum for customer inquiries that can help resolve root issues and minimize adverse impact on the business. Such help desk solutions which enables customer self-help and multiple levels of internal support are actually knowledge based applications that efficiently responds to repeated issues and automatically takes up request and adds it to the request queue, reducing the support staff time. The flexible settings allow the global managers to view all help desk issue requests across various departments.

The IT service organizations with their need to increase service efficiency make use of a number of management tools. These tools help in managing business requirements and improving workflow. However, with large number of workforce working on software development life cycles from off shore locations, enterprises need to deploy effective 24/7 help desk solutions that can handle all service requests and provide the necessary support for critical hardware and software issues. IT Help desk solutions targeting such department level needs ensures agility and high performance levels in every application lifecycle management.

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JIRA Integration

ALM

Implications of ALM Solutions

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:47:29 +0100

Most of us plan as we want to know when the tasks are completed. The best way to understand when a task is truly over is by ensuring that the plan is completely incorporated with the project execution and is forever upgraded. The elements included in this plan comprises of the organization functions and the individuals that have deliverables and roles in the project that comprises tests, development and the ones who define the needs. Furthermore, people also keep a track of workloads to have a clear understanding of the impact of the changes and to correct predict the delivery.

Rather than planning, making and implementing individual processes that are always out of sync, your ALM solution must drive plans directly into project implementation. As soon as the owners, tasks and hand-offs are recognized in a project iteration plan, the solution must automate the flow of group activities across the extended team.

Today service providers offering application lifecycle management solutions offers a configurable and rich and global platform for executing a software development life cycle(SDLC) procedure, by collaborating the entire development cycle and tracking the executions back to the original spec. The inbuilt requirements management process further ensures that all the developers are operating from one playbook, and irrespective of their location, there is no expensive last minute changed, whether the project got developed in the next door office or an offshore partner. The outcome is a top-quality application that matches with what the user requires and complies with all the external and internal requirements management. Other aspects of ALM solution include the following:

· Manages requirements, tests, risks, issues, projects and releases

· Attains change management with multi-level traceability

· Automates workflow processes for better quality and productivity

· Incorporates the best breed tools for integrated ALM solutions

· Sets up dashboards and report for excellent management visibility

However, there are certain elements that prove useful for real time planning within in ALM solution. It is best if there is no plan that is outside the ALM environment. You need to use the plans that are completely integrated with implementation, monitor tasks for the whole team. Plan transparency is crucial where plans are accessible and visible to everyone on the team. Make use of plans that is simple to comprehend the load, simple to see what the team is presently working on in the task boards.

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Requirements Management

Traceability matrix

Application Lifecycle Management-Providing a Competitive Edge

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:16:39 +0100

Today's competitive business environment challenges the enterprises to provide faster delivery of goods and services. Such delivery schedules will require innovative solutions. Globalization and the advent of technological innovations over the years have paved way for the development of solutions to help the enterprises meet the challenges head on without any compromise on quality levels.

Nevertheless, developing solutions for complex business applications calls for efficiency in software development that can be achieved by the coordinating business management and software engineering, along with other tools such as software architecture, coding, testing systems and release management through a proper enforcement processes. The Application Lifecycle management (ALM) system is a continuous process that helps to manage the lifecycle of any applications through its development, maintenance, and governance and compatibility stages. The business value of the application is dependent on all these aspects with governance extending over the entire application lifecycle and including all of the decision-making and project management aspects. Development spans through an application's lifecycle and includes the process of creating an application and its multiple upgrades and newer versions. Operation refers to the work required to run an application.

Forrester defines Application Lifecycle Management as "The coordination of life-cycle activities for the development of software including requirements, modeling, development, building, and testing along with the management of relationships between development artifacts used or produced by these activities; and reporting on progress of the development effort as a whole." With enterprises developing a number of software to meet the ever-changing customer demands the IT infrastructure becomes loaded with applications. To facilitate a smooth functioning of all the applications in the networked environment, enterprises make use of IT service management tools and IT Help desk solutions.

Application Life cycle management solutions with its automated management system and ability to incorporate both traditional and agile methodology makes a desirable solution for the global organizations. Further, by supporting large number of application environments and globally spread teams, the ALM solutions can be interconnected with tools such as Requirement Management, Test management, Issues management, Risk management, release management and Project management. This not only facilitates easy implementation of software development cycle but also provides for easy access to the diverse teams.

The successful implementation of IT governance and compliance practices paves for an increased productivity levels in the organization. The application lifecycle management solutions being web based solution besides enabling multiple input methods also allows to import files from other document formats and create documents in multiple reporting formats including real-time dashboards. With customer being the vital factor of every business, these solutions provides every enterprise with a customer product management tool which gives the global enterprise a competitive edge over their rivals and helps them improve their business prospects.

Related Links

Requirements traceability matrix

ALM

Alleviate the Complexities Of Business WIth Efficient SDLC Solutions

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 09:51:56 +0100

Software development is an intricate process that requires a lot of planning, implementation and testing. You can not develop perfect software with full functionality unless it passes all the tests and quality analysis. Enterprises need an SDLC as a framework to guide the development to make it more systematic and efficient. With an efficient SDLC process, an enterprise can produce a product that is cost-efficient, effective, and of high quality. Once an application is created, the SDLC maps the proper deployment and decommissioning of the software once it becomes a legacy.

A software development company puts special emphasis on SDLC to produce the most effective, functional and mission critical software that can help one's business in a long run. The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a pre-set framework that is used by all software development companies for through understanding and developing effective information systems and software. Your Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) solution must provide an extensive and complete support for all SDLC functions. It must prevail over the complexities involved in the entire development process from initiation, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance to disposal. It also provides a structured and standardized process for all phases of software development, thereby ensuring that all functional user requirements- and strategic goals and objectives are met.

Enhance the productivity of your organization with a flexible and configurable software development life cycle (SDLC) solution that is capable of cutting across users' development methodology , regardless of whether it is the traditional Waterfall, Iterative or Agile methodology. A good solution helps you upgrade requirements management tools for hardware and software development and software engineering while improving both, efficiency and quality of the products you deliver to your end customers.

Every stage of SDLC carries its own importance and plays a key role in the success of any software development project. The software development Lifecycle solution that you choose must ensure the delivery of high quality software, provide excellent management controls and reporting and maximize productivity and timely delivery. Software development should be flexible enough to inculcate required changes with time and according to changing business needs. Invest in an SDLC solution that has proven framework providing uniform methods, designs, operations and results, has increased productivity, effective planning and control with total management reporting. The solution must also facilitate easy communication and information exchange thereby allowing better team collaboration over the Web with ease of maintenance and monitoring.

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Application Lifecycle Management

ALM