Earlier this morning, I was among the 10,000+ attendees at the Autodesk University event in Las Vegas and took in the keynote address that included Carl Bass, Autodesk’s CEO, Jeff Kowalski, Autodesk’s CTO and Tom Kelley, the general manager of IDEO, one the world’s premier product design firms.

A couple of key take-aways emerged.

1.  From What if to What else?

The Autodesk executives showcased several amazing examples of innovation, from buildings to bridges to surf boards to cities (yes, complete 3-D models of cities)  – many of which were designed by Autodesk customers in the room.  They shared their vision for how software (like theirs and others) with enormous computing power will enable us to shift from asking “What if” questions to asking “What else” questions.

Before, an architect, designer or engineer might ask, “What if we change the shape?”, “What if we change the material?”, “What if we change the user interface this way?”  With today’s tools, we have to imagine all the different What if scenarios ourselves.  The human mind can only process 7 bits of information at a time, and software today is still a relatively passive experience, reacting to the inputs and commands we give it.  Regardless of how smart we are (or think we are), the software tools we use to build things, should and will soon become much more proactive.  The apps will assess all the possible variables and combinations for us (including ones we probably wouldn’t have thought of) and offer us back options to choose from that provide the best design, the best experience.

An example was given with Boeing, where they were already able to do in 6 days what used to take 8 years, and analyzing exponentially more options and identifying the safest, most reliable solution to their engineering challenge.   Essentially, the true power of software will be that it will enable people to digitally conceive, design, and experience things before they are real – which has enormous benefits in terms of speed, costs and quality.

2. Innovation & Design - At Work Together.

Tom Kelley of IDEO in his presentation made the point that innovation and design aren’t mutually exclusive disciplines, that they’ve blended together – whether you’re developing a new eco-friendly building, a new bike, an entire city or a new software application – design isn’t superficial as some might think – if you want to innovate you have to design.   And, design is as much about identifying the right problem as it is engineering the right solution.

Tom touched on his 2 favorite personas from his latest book, “The 10 Faces of Innovation” – the Anthropologist and the Experience Architect.

He joked about how there is general skepticism around the anthropology work that is needed in the innovation process, of how clients often ask, “Can we just skip that and just do the real design and engineering work?”  He had a nice way of summarizing the value of each role.

The Anthropologist is great at observing customers and “finding the opportunities that are hidden in plain sight.” What he called “Vuja de” or the opposite of Déjà vu – meaning looking at something and seeing it differently with new eyes.  He gave the simple example of how IDEO designed a new kid’s toothbrush for Oral B.  The pre-existing assumption was that we all know how to brush our teeth.  We’ve been doing it for centuries, so it would seem logical that kids are just smaller versions of adults, so just take an adult toothbrush and design a smaller and skinner version of it, right?  Wrong.  The anthropologists at IDEO observed that when kids brush their teeth, they can’t hold the brush with their finger tips the same way adults do; they hold it in their fist.  So, the smarter, better design is to actually make the handle bigger and softer so the kids could easily hold it while brushing.  Simple, but brilliant, and in plain sight.

These kinds of opportunities exist all over in our field of work in software application design – we just have to be open to looking for them.

The value of the 2^nd key persona, the Experience Architect, is that they think beyond the product or service or user interface and focus on the customer journey from start to finish.  Paired together, these 2 personas are critical to the process of building great products, services and experiences.

3.  Software Design - We must aspire to the Wet-nap user interface.

Even though Autodesk’s tools primarily apply to the design of physical products, these same principles apply to our world of software design and development.  We should challenge ourselves to put our anthropologists and experience architect hats on everyday and look at our work with new eyes.  Too often as developers, work can be very specification-driven.  The logical answer to the problem is believed to be understood and thus documented in a static requirements specification doc, and now go engineer it.  But, innovation doesn’t happen that way.  Continue to ask ourselves, “What else is possible?”

As Tom Kelley put it, we should aspire to the “Wet-nap user interface” even when developing complex, sophisticated products.  The directions on the back of a wet-nap are so simple, they read, “Open and use.”  When we can build software that is that simple for our users, that’s when we know we’ve nailed it.

For more photos on Facebook: John’s Autodesk University album

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.”

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.

]]> http://www.jamasoftware.com/blog/2008/11/18/whats-the-value-of-requirements-management-in-a-down-economy/feed/ http://www.jamasoftware.com/blog/2008/07/30/building-the-web-20-enterprise-the-mckinsey-global-survey-results-are-out/ http://www.jamasoftware.com/blog/2008/07/30/building-the-web-20-enterprise-the-mckinsey-global-survey-results-are-out/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:48:47 +0000 John http://www.jamasoftware.com/blog/?p=88 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”.

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 expectations”.
• 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?

Finalists and award winners will be recognized during the event at the Oregon Convention Center on September 18, 2008. This year’s event theme “Rogues and Renegades” honors the independent spirit of Oregon’s entrepreneurs.

Even though our customers are worldwide, we take pride in our Portland roots and membership within OEN. We are honored to be participating in this year’s award ceremony and look forward to seeing everyone there.

For more information: Read the OEN Awards blog post

I find myself having conversations on these topics with customers almost every day so I thought I’d write about the analysis we do to help answer those questions. These are great discussions and with any enterprise software purchase, it’s a good practice to assess the total cost of ownership and determine the anticipated return on investment (ROI). And, especially in a tough economy, this is even more critical.

The good news is that in the field of requirements management, there’s a pretty thorough model that exists. We use an ROI model developed for Software Quality Engineering (Stickyminds.com) by Richard Denney, a software and process management consultant. This model has been used by many in the industry to assess the value of requirements management.

It helps quantify the tangible cost savings and benefit-to-cost ratio for these 4 key benefits of RM:

1. Improved team efficiency
2. Avoiding lost requirements
3. Avoiding unnecessary work
4. Reducing requirements defects

On average, the cost savings we’re seeing for companies range from $300k – $400k per year for a team size of 20 though there are a handful of variables to consider to customize the analysis to your team.

That being said, getting a good return assumes commitment and from the team and that the requirements tool isn’t shelfware.

We’ve seen that it’s easier to be successful when the development process matches team dynamics and the tools selected have team buy in.

If you are thinking about the value of requirements management or how to quantify a requirements management solution, let me know. I’ll share our version of the spreadsheet and ROI doc. Email me at kthomson@jamasoftware.com.

As a growing start-up ourselves, it’s something we think about each day in how we shape the direction of our company, create our products, and make every day decisions.

There’s a great article that Fast Company wrote profiling W.L. Gore and Associates (the maker of Gore-Tex fabric that as Oregonians we all know very well, and thousands of other products). The article details a few characteristics that we admire and wanted to share here (perfect reading for a Friday afternoon).

Link to article: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/open_gore.html

Even though the article was written in 2004, it’s still incredibly relevant to all the talk and attention you see surrounding “innovation” in today’s business world. Some of these principles seem simple, but it’s amazingly difficult and still rare to see the level of trust, patience and commitment it takes from a company’s leaders to allow for the risk taking, lack of hierarchy and allowed time for breakthrough ideas to fail many times before materializing into commercial success.

That balance between “how do we focus on our short-terms revenue goals” and “how do we allow people to dream up crazy, seemingly completely unrelated products like guitar strings, dental floss and water-proof fabric within the same company”? It’s this balance that takes “innovation” from just a hyper-buzzword to everyday reality for companies like Gore. And, to see that their founder, Bill Gore, and his family had this vision back in the late 50’s is pretty amazing. He didn’t rely on the latest business strategy book du jour, he just based it on a simple premise he observed of how companies operated in crisis, when the rules get thrown out and they take risks. So, why wait for the crisis, just operate that way every day.

Read the article and get inspired. We’ll continue to look for and share articles and examples we come across that make us stop and think. If you have one, please share it with us here or in our Jama Backstage community forum: http://www.jamabackstage.com

From from our collective conversations with customers, partners and peers (and, of course our own perspectives), we see 2 trends this year worth highlighting here. Yes, we’ll focus on just 2, not everything requires a top 10 list. We like to keep things simple. So, here we go:

1. From buzzwords to reality - the emergence of innovation management.

If 2007 was anything it was the year of buzzwords. And, the kingpin of them - Web 2.0 - spawned many offspring last year. It seemed everything was 2.0-ified: ALM 2.0, PLM 2.0, Project Management 2.0, Innovation 2.0 and on and on and on. Where 2007 was the year of the next big thing, we believe 2008 will be the year of action. The mantra being, Enough talk, let’s get things done.

Specifically, we see 2008 being the year that 3 highly talked about strategic initiatives will converge and materialize into real value for many companies. The big 3 being: Innovation, Collaboration and Community. When integrated, they shape the emerging category of Innovation Management. So what’s new here?

Innovation is a major strategic initiative for over 70% of enterprise organizations and has been a leading cover story over the last few years, BUT success rates are still low for the majority of efforts. Data shows that spending more in R&D isn’t a silver bullet. So, what is? Is it process? Is it people? Is it technology? That’s where collaboration and community come in. These concepts aren’t new either, but where things have recently changed and continue to move is the scale at which collaboration and community are being leveraged within the innovation process to increase success and get closer to what customers really want. The community, or simply put the group of people influencing innovation decisions, is growing to include not only your talented employees and business partners, but now also customers, potential customers, industry influencer’s and many other external audiences with ideas, voices and blogs. And, as you embrace greater collaboration with your ever-growing community, the front-end of the innovation funnel explodes open, and with that, a new challenge emerges: How do you manage all of these ideas? How do you capitalize on them within your product planning and development efforts in an automated way? And very tangibly in era of simply getting things done and done successfully, how do you translate them to specific requirements that will satisfy customer needs and make up the next generation of your products or services? The simplest way to summarize it is - if innovation is the primary goal or what, then collaboration is the how and community is the “who”. And, they work hand-in-hand together to raise success rates. That’s innovation management.

2. Bigger isn’t better - the explosive growth of light-weight, Web-based apps to manage core business processes.

This trend has been underway for a few years, and we see it only accelerating in 2008. It’s a trend sweeping across many technology categories that fuel core business processes, such as ERP, CRM, ALM, PLM and the things close to home for Jama like innovation and requirements management.

OUT are big, bulky, expensive, proprietary suites of applications to manage core business processes.

IN are light-weight, open, flexible, Web-based applications that bring people together, eliminate overhead, integrate well with other tools and make it easier to get things done.

Granted, we’re biased here because this is how we build our tools, such as Contour, but there’s a reason for that. We want to get things done right and help our customers do the same.

Welcome to 2008. Have a great year.