1130Application of ALM to a

Multi-Faceted Project

Miroslav NovakSystems Engineer

Borland Canada

Introduction

Critical Mass

www.criticalmass.com

IntroducingCritical Mass

• Calgary, Alberta, Canada based company

• Builds Web sites and relationship marketing programs

• Enable organizations to develop deeper, more personalized relationships with their customers

Engagement Model

• Complete development & delivery, or • Research and requirements and

subcontracting out development, or• Something in between• Central/distributed teams/individuals in

technical and non-technical roles.• Time & Materials -> Fixed bid

Projects

• Each have a component of system development

• Typically involve market research and graphic design 

• Assets of activities are more than just source

• Assets assets needed to be managed in a similar way. 

Goal of Implementing ALM

Facilitate

distributed

multi-disciplinary

teams.

Implementation

Planning

• Establish success criteria• Establish candidate project criteria• Establish migration success criteria• Migration proof of concept• Timeliness of training• “Day in the Life” familiarization• Traceability vs. reportability calibration• Source control vs. activity and asset

management

Project Criteria

• Probability of sponsorship• Meaningful project• Greenfield status• Small project team• Low criticality targets• J2EE architecture• Short duration project length• Low technical risk

Define

CaliberRM

Define - Actions

• Identified a project just ramping up• Included a distributed team of

business/functional analysts • Requirements exposed remotely • Integration to MI’s Test Director activated

for QA technicians and release engineers

Define - Results

Quick dissemination of information: – Pull information at requirement granularity.

Effective organization of requirements: – Normalized, consistent reuse and reference

Quick, proactive feedback:  – QA involved early and often with traceability

and visibility

Unintentional rapid external adoption

Define – Next

A larger project, in requirements capture mode

Record enhancements requests for Caliber

Manage

StarTeam

Manage (1) – Actions

• A project small feature addition and maintenance mode

• Created structure that matches the diverse assets of the projects. 

• Applied consistently across teams but unique across responsibilities.

• Created ANT build scripts over the existing SCM system then repositories were migrated

Manage (1) – Custom Change Requests

• Developed a custom change request form for defects

• Added properties specific to issue management process

• Used view of links that were in context of CR form

Manage (1) – Custom Workflow

• Evolved workflow to control of defect• Supported development, QA and

Release Engineering

Manage (1) – Results

Adaptable teams:  • Consistent structure supports liquid teams• Find bearings faster & contribute soonerAsset protection: • Consistent structure enables robust enterprise storage• Crashes leads to cost time, but not dataRapid build process: • Script automation took advantage of ANT technology• Reduced the build time in QA or Release by a factor of

10• Improve the reliability of build• Script reusable for next projects

Manage (1) – Results

Capturing pertinent information: • Collect and disseminate meta-information specific

and relevant to that project and the solution space Persistent, repeatable mechanism for issue

tracking:  • Automating workflow reduce wait times between

activities• Served to identify areas of constraints

Manage (1) – Next

• A larger project• Greenfield, without a code base• Expand roles using StarTeam from start

Manage (2)

ST/TD Synchronizer

Manage (2) – Actions

• Implemented the ST<->TD synchronizer• Created the corresponding properties in

StarTeam• Mapped the information that needs to be

propagated to TestDirector for QA and RE needs

Manage (2) – Results

Bidirectional sharing of information: • Information logged from either side• Shared and propagated • Reduced information switching.

Faster feedback to develop:• Development receives CR’s driven by

QA• CR’s arrive within existing interface.

Manage (2) – Next

• Larger project• Small project no TD• Adapt additional properties for

synchronization• Rationalize workflow with StarTeam• Implement solution upgrade

Future Direction

Tactical Direction

Enterpise spread• CaliberRM and StarTeamLeverage investment• Together, JBuilder, Optimizeit SuiteManagement focus• Task management updating project plans• Tracking effort expended against development

task. • Current information not a detailed or dynamic

enough for strategic advantage in fixed price bids.

Strategic Direction

Relationship with Borland

Create business opportunity

Revitalize existing opportunities

Managing Information

Identify those business opportunities where particular pieces create benefit & add customer value.

The remaining pieces of system solutionleverage and manage other internal or external resources to deliver

Questions?

Thank You

1130

Application of ALM to a Multi-Faceted Project

Please fill out the speaker evaluation

You can contact me further at …mnovak@borland.com