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Software Development Lifecycle Suite?
I'm looking for development lifecycle software - not just something like MS Project integrated with source control software, but the REAL thing.
Here's what I need:
1) The ability for marketing to add thir requirements to the software (don't want a seperate word doc)
2) The ability for Program Managers to add their requirements for developers (no seperate doc here either - spec'ed requirements, that can turn into features that dev need to code to)
3) The ability for dev to update status (% complete, etc...)
4) Integrated bug tracking solution
The software suite needs to integrate with source versioning software.
I have not been able to find ANYTHING out there that does this. I'd like to streamline the development at our company from using random word docs for requirements and excel spreadsheets for other project management tasks.
Anything out there?
foo()
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Good luck man. I'll be watching the thread for answers, too.
H. Lally Singh
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
I'm watching too!
I think this is a non trivial problem.
It's easy to define what you'd like the outcome to be, but the devil is in the details.
The real Entrepreneur
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
> 1) The ability for marketing to add thir requirements to the
> software (don't want a seperate word doc)
>
> 2) The ability for Program Managers to add their
> requirements for developers (no seperate doc here either -
> spec'ed requirements, that can turn into features that dev
> need to code to)
Can you imagine the nightmare of allowing marketing and program managers to add requirements whenever they liked!
Serioulsy though you could just use a bug tracker like FogBugz or Bugzilla and just let the above enter requirements as "feature requests" into the bug tracker. There is usually an estimate feature where developers can enter the hours required for each feature. This could then be used to work out the percentage complete.
Matthew Lock
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
I thought half a manager's job was managing expectations, and the other half was ensuring complete req's so that the tech staff got them and knew what to do with them and didn't have to ask the "stupid questions."
Sounds like you want to eliminate this position.
www.MarkTAW.com
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
My understanding was that the Rational suite covered most of this. I think that cost will stop you giving it to all and sundry though.
David Freeman
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
MarkTaw - I'm not looking to eliminate, just "facilitate". I'm not using it as a buzzword either - it'd be great to have requirements, status, etc... as a first class notion rather than "made to work" in some bug utility like FogBugz.
I think we would be much more efficient in our development with such a tool!
And Marketing / PM should of course not be allowed to change requirements once they've been "locked down".
Call me crazy, but I'd pay decent dollars for an integrated suite like this.
foo()
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
I think that you just described FogBugz 2008 :).
--Josh
JWA
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
"I have not been able to find ANYTHING out there that does this."
That is because such a commercial suite of applications really doesn't exist. Now having said this, I believe Rational (now owned by IBM) sells software that can handle most of your rudimentary requirements:
* IBM Rational Rose XDE (visual design and development environment)
* IBM Rational RequisitePro (for requirements managment)
* IBM Rational ClearCase (software configuration
management)
* Rational ClearQuest or ClearDDTS (for bug tracking)
Note: Rational's software still requires Marketing droids and managers to create Microsoft Word documents and currently only human beings can turn raw requirements into features that developers can code against.
Assuming the above software does much of what you are looking for the next question you need to ask yourself is can my organization afford to purchase these expensive software products?
One Programmer's Opinion
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Rational has products that purportedly address these needs, but you'd using Rational software is like being a dingo (or coyote) caught in a trap ... you'd chew your arm off rather than spend another day with it.
Definitely the worst user interfaces, worst designs, worst general usability in the marketplace. Heck, it even makes the British user interfaces of the 70s and 80s look good.
HeWhoMustBeConfused
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Comprehensive SDLC and portfolio mangement. Used by Bearing Point (formerly KPMG Consulting). No, I don't work there.
http://www.digite.com
insufferable
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Borland has requirements (CaliberRM), model-driven design (Together/ECO), issue tracking and version control (StarTeam) tools that integrate with their development environments. I don't know exactly how far they've gotten as far as integration goes, but it's something they appear to putting a lot of effort into.
Big B
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Did you look at workflow-capable tools like Notes or Zope for instance? Maybe some solutions are available, even if they don't cover 100% of your needs (I'm thinking of the strech between a tool to allow people to contribute ideas, and a source control system.)
FredF
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Have you visited www.sourceforge.net before, the largest
online open source project hosting site! Gforge is independent packaged version with all the same function as sourceforge. You can get it from gforge.org. I have implement it for a offshore outsourcing center, and it works fine ever since.
Thomas
Thomas Liu
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
foo(), I don't understand why you need a tool for this. It's not really the sort of stuff that should be turned into a push-button process.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
There's DOORS: http://www.telelogic.com/products/doorsers/doors/
It's said to integrate with ClearCase and PVCS, otherwise it has built-in version control of the data you put into it.
Christopher Wells
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Digité Enterprise is offered on an ASP model and priced on a per-user/per-month model. A variety of training and catalyst services are provided to ensure successful adoption of Digité Enterprise.
Here is my interpretation of the above. We created Digité Enterprise in order to suck as much money from your company as is humanly possible.
Large Consulting Firms Are Evil
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
If you really want it, you can go RUP And UML and Rational Tools.
I think you don't want it. You want to hire good people who are smart who can get things done, and one of them is a project manager.
Collaboration tools are good. Ask for a soup-to-nuts lifecycle solution and I'm afraid you're going to get a lot of snake oil ...
Matt H.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Rational is horrid.
"foo(), I don't understand why you need a tool for this. It's not really the sort of stuff that should be turned into a push-button process."
I guess I'm not sure of the opposition to such a process? Let me clarify - the easiest way to do this is by comparison:
Option A - What we do today:
1) Product Planning goes and talks to a bunch of customers in focus groups, does competitive analysis, and comes up with a "Marketing Requirements doc". (planning milestone)
2) The Project Manager reads these requirements, and writes the functional specification - what features to build, how they work, etc... (planning milestone)
3) Dev costs and codes against these functional requirements (dev milestone)
4) QA tests and logs bugs against the code (stabilization milestone)
[repeat 3 and 4 as necessary]
During these milestone spreadsheets, emails, etc... a slew of different tools are employed to get visibility into the TRUE status of the product. It's pretty haphazard at most companies I've ever worked for.
This is a very loose process that depends of course on the quality of the devs, test and project manager. In no case will the development process be able to replace that fact. I would simply like to get to a point where I set all these people up for success.
Option B - What we want to do:
1) Product Planning goes and talks to a bunch of customers in focus groups, does competitive analysis, and comes up with a "Marketing Requirements doc". (planning milestone)
2) A software suite is able to easily extract the high-level requirements from the document and place them into the system.
3) The Project Manager reads the documents and the requirements in the system, and writes the functional specification - what features to build, how they work, etc... (planning milestone)
4) These features are entered into the system and matched to marketing requirements (ensuring all requirements are met)
5) Dev costs against these features and puts their estimates into the system
6) As dev codes, they regularly update their percentage complete status in the system (instead of sending and email to PM, or updaing a home-brewed spreadsheet). The system would then automatically chart progress, etc...
7) QA tests and logs bugs against the code (stabilization milestone)
I understand that tools like MS Project, FogBugz and others can do parts of this, but I would love an easy to use, integrated suite.
I really just want a tool to aide in the development process - not automate it in anyway.
Am I smoking something and people think that a central system to manage all these things would actually impede the development process?
Thanks,
foo( )
foo()
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
This looked interesting. I have never tried it.
http://www.php-collab.com/
Doug Withau
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
I think it would be extremely useful - there's something we looked at once called speeDEV; their story is here: http://www.speedev.com/thespeedevstory.html
~
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Large consulting firms are evil. And any comapny selling "Enterprise" software is on a maximum cash-extraction mission. As are most businesses.
Why do people sell huge Enterprise apps? That's where the money is.
But, as with most such apps, the feature set is extensive (yes that means way more than anyone will ever need/use).
fool for python
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
The new version of SpeeDEV is certainly worth looking at, otis still in beta - we saw an early preview just by signing up for a webinar on thier website. It certainly looks like the most advanced in this area. Anyone used it - thier opininon would be useful....
always cautious
Friday, April 16, 2004
We use SpeeDEV. Looks like what you need.
William Fletcher. Syncata Corp
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
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