Overview:  Contour is a Web-based application designed to help organizations build great products.  These products can be standalone software applications, physical products with embedded software or internal IT systems.  Organizations use Contour for managing a range of product development projects.  These projects tend to be complex with many requirements and involve teams that are large and distributed geographically.  As a Web-based application, Contour provides organizations a collaborative way to stay connected during the development process.

Benefits:  The functionality of Contour centers around three key needs:

1.Capturing customer needs.
2.Communicating what to build.
3.Staying on top of change.

Process:  Whether you’re using Agile, Iterative, Waterfall or some hybrid of methodologies, Contour can be customized to fit your existing process.

Options:  Contour is available as software you install and manage internally or as a hosted service that Jama Software manages for you.  The functionality is the same and this User Guide applies to both options.  Based on what you’ve purchased, your organization is using:

Contour On-Site – Download, install and manage Contour behind your own firewall.
Contour Contourhosted – Have Jama manage Contour for you as a fully hosted service.

See Exploring the Contour Workspace for more information.

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