In this blog, we recap our webinar, “Building the Blueprint: Applying Requirements Management in the AEC Industry” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.
What does effective requirements management look like in the AEC industry?
Discover how Jama Connect® is transforming requirements management for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) projects by streamlining processes, enhancing collaboration, and tackling the industry’s unique challenges — from managing complex stakeholder needs and ensuring compliance to saving time, reducing costly rework, and minimizing project risks.
In this webinar, experts Patrick Garman, Principal Solutions Consultant, and Joe Gould, Senior Account Executive from Jama Software, share insights and demonstrate Jama Connect’s powerful capabilities tailored for the AEC industry.
What you’ll learn:
Streamlined approaches to capturing, verifying, and tracking requirements
Techniques for reducing costly rework through inefficient project management
Ways to enhance team collaboration in complex projects
Strategies to ensure regulatory compliance through the project lifecycle
Insights from real-world case studies and industry-specific examples for successful AEC project delivery
BELOW IS AN ABBREVIATED SECTION OF THIS TRANSCRIPT
Building the Blueprint: Applying Requirements Management in the AEC Industry
Joe Gould: Let’s start by examining a critical aspect of our industry and that’s regulations in AEC. Understand why they’re so vital to our work in the broader community. Regulations in the AEC industry serve multiple essential purposes. First, keeping people safe. Organizations like OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, establish regulations to ensure the safety and accessibility of construction sites. In 2023, OSHA charged businesses $132.3 million for violations of its 10 most cited regulations. This substantial figure underscores the importance of adhering to safety standards to protect our workers and the public.
Second, ensuring structures last. Local building codes in the International Building Code, or IBC, set the standards for durability and longevity of structures. Failure to meet these standards can lead to severe penalties ranging from monetary fines to criminal charges. So ensuring compliance not only avoids these penalties but also guarantees the integrity and safety of the buildings that we design and that we construct.
Third, preserving our natural environment regulations from the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and LEED, Leadership and Energy Environmental Design, are designed to protect our environment. Penalties for violating environmental regulations can be severe with fines up to $250,000 and prison sentences of up to 15 years. Compliance helps us minimize our environmental footprint and contribute to sustainable development.
Last, providing financial protection for all involved. Regulations enforced by the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, and EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, ensure that all parties involved in construction projects receive fair compensation for their work. These regulations aim to promote fairness and transparency, ensuring that everyone from contractors to laborers are paid appropriately. Non-compliance can result in project delays and financial losses.
Gould: The importance of adhering to these regulations cannot be overstated. These aren’t just bureaucratic hurdles. They’re the foundation of a safe, sustainable, and fair construction industry. And by following these regulations, we protect our workers, ensure the longevity and safety of our structures, preserve our environment, and promote fairness and financial integrity within our projects.
Construction is one of the most heavily regulated industries that exist. On top of regulations, the process of completing a long-term project requires an astronomical paper trail. However, this paper trail ensures that everything is done properly and that every worker is paid accordingly. To accommodate all of these moving parts, you need a dependable requirements management system to keep it all organized. As we navigate the dynamic landscape of AEC, there are various factors that contribute to the alterations and project requirements. Design modifications, compliance updates, stakeholder feedback, and other elements play a significant role in shaping project timelines and outcomes. Understanding these drivers is crucial for adapting to evolving project needs and ensuring successful project delivery. So let’s take a deeper look into the opportunity within the AEC industry.
There is a significant opportunity within the construction industry that has the potential to transform our sector and drive substantial economic growth. So let’s start with some key statistics that highlight the current landscape. 13% of the world’s GDP is driven by construction-related spending, 13%! This figure underscores the immense scale and economic importance of our industry globally. However, despite this substantial contribution, there’s a glaring productivity gap that we have to address. Over the past 20 years, the construction sector’s annual growth has increased by just 1%. This stagnant growth rate indicates that we are not maximizing our potential and that there are significant inefficiencies that are holding us back.
This brings us to the most compelling figure. There is a $1.6 trillion global opportunity to boost productivity in the construction sector annually. This isn’t just a number, this is a call to action. Imagine what we could achieve with an additional $1.6 trillion in value each year. It would revolutionize our industry, leading to faster project completion, reduce cost, and enhance profitability. The question we have to ask ourselves is how can we tap into this vast opportunity.
Gould: Did you know that inadequate scope management can lead to significant cost escalations? According to McKinsey and Company, up to 20% of project costs can be attributed to scope adjustments. However, with Jama Connect we can save time and money by mitigating scope-related issues. So let’s explore how effective requirements management can be a game changer in controlling project costs.
See, we have a requirements management problem and we don’t even know that we have a problem. There’s a better way than managing this through a series of documents. Jama Connect is a purpose-built tool to centralize all project requirements from the inception of a project through commissioning. Imagine a world where scope creep, inconsistent documentation, and communication gaps no longer hinder project success. With Jama Connect, we step into a realm of streamlined communication, stakeholder alignment, and precise cost estimation. And by centralizing project requirements, Jama Connect acts as a beacon of clarity guiding us through the maze of regulatory compliance and project intricacies.
In the realm of AEC projects, focus, traceability, collaboration, and compliance play pivotal roles in ensuring successful outcomes. Jama Connect stands as a proven solution offering end-to-end traceability and requirements reuse for complex projects. So as we navigate the intricate landscape of construction, let’s explore how Jama Connect revolutionizes the way that we capture, manage, and validate requirements.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/10/Creating-the-Blueprint-How-Jama-Connect-Elevates-AEC-Requirements-Management-Social-Image-1.png9001600Jama Software/media/jama-logo-primary.svgJama Software2024-10-10 03:00:082024-10-09 10:10:14[Webinar Recap] Building the Blueprint: Applying Requirements Management in the AEC Industry
What does DOORS stand for?
DOORS is an acronym that stands for Rational Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements System.
What is DOORS?
IBM DOORS, formerly known as Telelogic DOORS, is a legacy requirements management tool originally created in 1991 and is part of the IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Family.
Why was IBM DOORS originally built?
Requirements management tools started to evolve more than 30 years ago when it became clear that document-based tools such as Microsoft Office did not offer the capabilities able to manage and analyze requirements traceability.
There was initially a limited choice of requirements tools including QSS DOORS (now IBM), Rational Requisite Pro (end of life), Borland Calibre RM (now Microfocus), as well as a few others.
Legacy requirements solutions may have been sufficient to handle managing requirements in the past but are failing to keep pace over time due to increasing engineering complexity and the need for modern software to be far easier to use.
Why did teams originally invest in IBM DOORS?
Requirements management has long been accepted by the engineering industry as an essential discipline, no matter which process is used, or which type of system is being produced. IBM DOORS was typically selected as choices were limited. Organizations originally invested in a requirements tool to establish a standard requirements management practice and process that allowed teams to align on a single source of truth for requirements.
They invested in DOORS software with the goal of:
Encouraging and motivating teams to follow common requirements practices.
Establishing a single source of truth for requirements to ensure teams were working off the same information.
Creating minimal disruption to the business with an off-the-shelf solution that allowed teams to focus on their core business.
Integrating requirements into core workflows and business without impacting how people work.
Tracking the life of a requirement through development, test, and release.
Why does IBM DOORS fall short for requirements management?
The past few decades have ushered in a new way of working — now teams are expected to work more efficiently and collaboratively across the organization and supply chain. Companies building highly regulated and complex products often rely on legacy tools such as IBM DOORS, yet as product development methodologies evolve, legacy requirements management tools have not kept pace.
Misalignment between what teams need vs. what legacy solutions provide can introduce increased risk in the product development process, leading to inefficiencies and lack of visibility that often result in missed deadlines, defects, compliance gaps, and rework. Companies that have migrated to a modern solution from IBM DOORS have achieved faster development times, greater efficiencies, and reduced expenses. As you plan your next move, we’ll cover everything you need to consider moving forward, including market challenges, how engineering teams are adapting, and why waiting to make a change will continue to expose you to greater unnecessary risks.
You may currently be using a solution that was implemented with the intention of producing positive business outcomes. But over time, the market has changed and, as a result, your organization’s needs have changed.
If you feel like you’ve outgrown your requirements management software, you aren’t alone. Complex systems such as IBM DOORS have inherent drawbacks and have also had trouble keeping up with the innovation occurring in highly regulated industries. Continuing to use a solution that your organization has outgrown comes with a variety of challenges, including:
A cumbersome user experience. DOORS has a complex and challenging architecture and an outdated user interface. Existing users are losing the motivation to continue to use DOORS while new users are reluctant or refuse to learn. Users oftentimes refuse to use DOORS and wind up working in Word/Excel and collaboration is done in meetings and emails leaving decisions and details lost outside of DOORS.
A system lacking robust collaboration abilities and a single source of truth for requirements. With stakeholders reluctant to work within DOORS, “librarians” must enter information into the system to keep everything up to date, while the real collaboration happens outside of DOORS in emails or conversations. As a result, organizations lack the ability to perform robust reviews or examine the audit trail for requirements evolution. Additionally, teams using DOORS often must retain dedicated staff, a cost that is unnecessary in today’s competitive market where teams are being tasked with doing more with less.
Risk is introduced due to aging technologies. DOORS 9.6 is already outside of its original support window, which raises questions about how long DOORS will continue. Inevitably, IBM will at some point discontinue support for the DOORS legacy platform, and that leaves customers in a high-risk situation trying to protect their intellectual property. Additionally, a cloud option is not available, which creates challenges with remote working.
A high cost of ownership and reliance on customization. Organizations need to focus on their core business and using a bespoken RM tool interferes with that goal. Companies often struggle to achieve the benefits promised by DOORS without complex customization, and those customizations don’t transfer to IBM DOORS Next.
Stagnant infrastructure doesn’t support change. At rest, DOORS is working and has a low IT manpower cost of ownership. Changes are constantly happening and ignoring them creates additional risk. As the IT industry faces more demanding regulations, supporting the DOORS architecture is growing increasingly difficult.
Lack of vertical frameworks to support compliance. As industries establish increased regulatory and compliance rules, new and updated industry engineering frameworks have been created (e.g., DO178 A, B & C). Legacy requirements tools made early attempts at providing engineering frameworks, but these have not kept up with industry changes and are now mostly left to users to create for themselves.
Risks and Costs Associated with Staying with DOORS Software
Tools that are difficult or frustrating to use — and require experts to operate — will not only slow down development but will also breed resistance and hinder adoption. As is the case with DOORS software. This creates fragmented processes that introduce unnecessary risks for organizations that must stay current with compliance regulations while developing integrated, complex products that sustain business and maintain market relevance.
The unintended consequences of a fragmented development process are critical functions such as requirements traceability, verification, validation, risk mitigation, product integration, and compliance can be fraught with information gaps, defects, delays, rework, recalls, missed requirements, and significant manual effort.
In the complex product, systems, and software delivery lifecycle, organizations can experience negative outcomes when using DOORS software, such as:
Performance: Product fails to perform specified functions.
Quality: Product defects are discovered by customers post-launch.
Delays: Product release deadlines are missed, or costs are overrun.
Fit to requirements: Product fails to meet the needs of customers.
Compliance gaps: Gaps identified late and require extreme cost to rework and fix.
Regulatory action: Product is not approved for launch or recalled post-launch.
Achieving Live Traceability™ with Jama Connect
Jama Software’s Live Traceability allows engineering teams to quickly and easily access the latest and most complete information for any requirement, no matter the stage of development or tools used. This real-time capability boosts productivity by ensuring teams work with the latest data and reduces risks like delays and defects by finding issues early. Research shows that issues found late can be much more expensive to fix, which is why Live Traceability is so important. Jama Connect helps overcome the limitations of older tools, leading to better results in many industries such as automotive, medical devices, aerospace & defense, and more. To learn more, visit Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution
Interested in making a change in your requirements management tool? There are a lot of solutions on the market, check out our requirements management buyer’s guide to cut through the clutter, Selecting the Right Requirements Management Tool.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2022/07/2022-07-14-what-is-doors-and-why-fall-short.jpg5121024Jama Software/media/jama-logo-primary.svgJama Software2024-10-03 03:00:162024-10-09 13:43:18What is DOORS and Why Does DOORS Software Fall Short for Requirements Management?
In this blog, we recap our webinar, “Migrating from IBM DOORS: Learn Why and How Rockwell Automation Made the Switch” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.
Migrating from IBM® DOORS®: Why and How Rockwell Automation Made the Switch
As a modern alternative to traditional legacy platforms like IBM DOORS, Jama Connect® enables digital transformation with a more efficient and user-friendly approach to managing risk and compliance. And although the benefits are innumerable, some organizations hesitate to migrate to a modern platform because they believe it’s a painful, slow process.
You will hear directly from one of our customers, Rockwell Automation, about why they decided to migrate from IBM DOORS and how they were able to successfully move to Jama Connect.
In this session, the Rockwell Automation team answered the following questions, and more:
Why was now the right time to switch tools?
How easy was it to switch environments while preserving IP?
How did the Jama Software® team assist you in making the migration process as smooth as possible?
What are the drivers for continued and expanded use of Jama Connect?
What are the key benefits you have realized since the migration?
BELOW IS AN ABBREVIATED SECTION OF THIS TRANSCRIPT ABOUT MIGRATING FROM IBM DOORS
Sheila King: Rockwell has some business units that have functional safety products with the 61508, and although it’s not widely used at Rockwell, teams have solved their traceability and requirements management at the business unit level using Classic DOORS. Other teams were using homegrown requirements tools and traceability, including Doxygen, and yet other teams were using Word documents and Excel spreadsheets and doing the manual brute force way of doing traceability and requirements. But then when the security landscape changed and we realized the vulnerabilities of industrial automation, the 62443 cyber security specification was invented and we decided that we needed to use it, so we needed a site certification and in the process we adopted the IBM CLM product with the DOORS Next Gen RTC for planning and RQM for test management.
Mario Maldari: What led you to consider making a switch away from the tools that you were using and why was that change needed?
King: We were already in the throes of adopting the CLM DNG tools and developing our product cycle in order to meet the 62443 certification, and we decided in that process that we really needed to up our game. We needed better planning tools for our test integration and continuous integration and delivery, and we needed better tools for requirements management. That included the ability to move data widely between products because that’s real life and in the current tools, the DOORS Next Generation (sometimes called DNG or DOORS NG) tools, we needed to use the ReqIF, which was really an administrative thing as opposed to people being able to move their own data. We also had the solution for DOORS NG and RQM and RTC and we hired a third party or we contracted a third party vendor to manage that and we decided we needed a better integration for that, for our vendor. For the tools themselves, we needed variant and configuration management and native real-time traceability.
Maldari: Can we spend a few minutes looking at the primary considerations you have for selecting Jama Connect as opposed to DOORS Next Generation?
King: Yeah. We actually created a grassroots working group to evaluate tools and we evaluated several. Our top two were of course Jama [Connect] and Helix. The tiebreakers were this, Jama Connect had functional safety-ready certification and anybody who goes through functional safety knows how much value that is for your audit. We needed a strong review center and Jama [Connect] has that. We needed baselines in order to be able to not have to use SAP for saving our documents. We like the rational database and the ability to configure different item types. We not only use Jama Connect for our requirements, but we use it for our threat models and our fault models, and we also liked a lot the structure, the permission structure that allows you to specify all the way down to requirement if you need to, how you’re going to protect your data in the tools. And with our fault and models or design for security and threat models, that is our business risk or business restricted setting.
Maldari: Thank you. We know the value of an organization’s environment is their data. You spend a lot of money buying tools and maintaining tools, but the real value is the data that you have inside of those tools. Can you share some of the concerns Rockwell had going into the migration?
King: First of all, we were going to having all our data in the cloud. And so we had our CISO team get involved in that and they did an evaluation because not only were we now putting requirements in the cloud, we were putting our source in the cloud with Git. We were putting our planning, our tests in the clouds, our anomalies in the cloud, some kind of scary stuff to have in the cloud, and so we had a CISO audit and they decided that it was very safe to do that. Secondly, when it comes to actually keeping our data safe, the truth is we asked Jama Connect to explain to us how they were going to keep it safe and they convinced us that they could, and so they’ll tell you how they kept our data safe.
Maldari: Maybe that’s a good transition to the next question. This is just a discussion around were there any specific steps you took to protect the data and IP?
King: Because we had such a short window for moving all the content over, we made backups as it was in our current tools and then moved them into the tools and we used the ReqIFs, the collections and all that stuff from DNG and just about every other way you can export data out of that and back it all up. And then once we moved it into Jama Connect, actually just handed it over to the Jama Software team and they imported it and then we migrated it and “Jama-tized” the data once we had it inside.
Maldari: Maybe we could bring Preston into this as well. Can you and Preston share some of the details around the migration approach?
Preston Mitchell: Yes. I’ll go ahead and let Sheila start and then I’ll jump in after.
King: So just as I mentioned, we had six months to do it, so we had three phases that we started with. We worked with our stakeholders to identify all the content to be migrated, and then we again had the extremely tight window we elected, like I mentioned, to adopt, to bring it over into Jama Connect as is.
Mitchell: Thanks, Sheila. Yeah, the slide that’s being presented right now basically illustrates the standard migration approach utilized by the Jama Connect team and our partners. Every migration is going to have unique elements, needs, but in the case of Rockwell’s migration, this template married very well. As Sheila was taking care of the planning, we transitioned really seamlessly into analysis and discovery. During the discovery and proof of concept stages. We did come across a few issues, very common in migrations, so we required some customized tool development, but once we had validated the integration tools and the approach, the final stages was fairly straightforward process.
Sheila was generating all of the extracts from the legacy systems and she would transfer those to the Jama Software team and then we would load them into Jama Connect. And as Sheila said, in some cases we go through a cleaning of the data prior to migration, but again, given the short window for this migration, we just elected to bring all the data over from DOORS Next Gen, which in some cases some of the modules had over 170 attributes, which we were able to consolidate and clean down quite a bit later. But again, with a short timeframe, we just elected to bring everything in as is cleaning up afterwards and Jama Connect because they were coming up against a pretty critical deadline where they were losing access to their DOORS instance.
Maldari: That sounds pretty comprehensive. Sheila, now that you’re at the other end, how would you rate your experience around migration and user your satisfaction?
King: Oh, well, the team was just great. They worked really hard to integrate and migrate our data. Anytime we ran into an issue, we got the software group and I keep forgetting the name of the team, I just call them the software group because that’s what we are, software. Anyway, but they’d come in and they would write some code to add to their data exchange to manage the data that was coming out of the tools, and it just worked really very well. The Classic DOORS group had a hundred and I can’t remember, seven fields, and we were able to talk them down into just, I think it’s 10 now.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2021/08/Migrating-from-IBM®-DOORS®-Learn-Why-and-How-Rockwell-Automation-Made-the-Switch-1.png9001600Mario Maldari/media/jama-logo-primary.svgMario Maldari2024-09-26 03:00:362024-09-25 11:32:15Migrating from IBM DOORS: Why and How Rockwell Automation Made the Switch
In this blog, we’ll recap a section of our eBook, “Best Practices Guide to Requirements and Requirements Management in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry” – Click HERE to download it in its entirety.
Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements and Compliance Management Solution for Complex Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Projects
Use a Single Platform to Streamline Complex AEC Project Requirements and Compliance Management
Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) companies face numerous challenges in managing complex project requirements and compliance due to growing complexity and enhanced regulatory scrutiny and business competition.
Project delays and cost overruns are common for a variety of reasons. Poor planning, miscommunication, and unanticipated changes can create a chaotic environment. Incomplete or mismanaged requirements are often dispersed across various isolated systems. Keeping up to date and demonstrating compliance with the latest safety, environmental, zoning and land use regulations, building codes and permits, labor, and employment laws are time-consuming and resource intensive. Without a structured approach, identifying and mitigating risks in projects is challenging. Inadequate documentation and poor knowledge management can result in lost information, repeated mistakes, and inefficiencies that lead to higher project costs and delays. Traceability – the ability to connect the dots between requirements, standards, and tests – is fundamental for AEC projects to succeed.
Companies often make the situation worse by attempting to manage critical processes using Word, Excel, or PDF document-based technology. While this manual approach may be adequate for small, simple AEC projects, it fails as complexity and scale increase. Reliance on legacy document management software such as SharePoint for tracing, storing, sharing, and retrieving project requirements and compliance documents means dealing with data siloes, lack of interoperability, constant changes, security threats, and limited collaboration and analysis.
As a result, companies have difficulty:
Reporting compliance to standards
Directly tracing regulations and standards to project requirements
Managing updates and implementing changes across concurrent projects
Collaborating effectively at a granular level around standards and design requirements
Creating an audit trail around sign-off and implementation of requirements and compliance
BOTTOM LINE
The increasing complexity and reliance on outdated tools make it difficult for AEC companies to efficiently manage requirements and compliance for complex projects that meet both internal and customer needs.
This Buyer’s Guide incorporates insights from Jama Software®’s more than 15 years of experience partnering with forward-thinking project requirements and compliance teams and industry experts. We’ve designed a platform that helps AEC companies efficiently manage and deliver complex projects by providing a centralized repository for all project requirements and regulatory compliance accessible by all stakeholders. This allows them to:
Take advantage of modern digital solutions
Manage regulations and standards with more confidence and efficiency
Demonstrate compliance with regulations systematically and consistently
Provide visibility into latest requirements, regulations, and standards
Collaborate in a single source of truth with a complete audit trail of activities
Avoid unnecessary costs and delays
Use these insights to better understand the challenges you’re up against and thoughtfully consider potential solutions. Plus, learn how to get the buy-in you need to undertake the kind of transformation necessary to succeed with complex projects.
Making the Case for Change
Jama Connect® helps AEC organizations manage complex project requirements and regulatory compliance by replacing documents and legacy tools with a powerful — but easy-to-use — digital platform that provides a single source of truth which is easily accessible by all stakeholders at any time. When project requirements, regulations, and safety analyses are managed in a centralized platform, users benefit from a straightforward process and the business impact and value of the platform becomes clear across the organization, making management buy-in easier.
If your company is not considering the importance of transitioning to a more modern, streamlined process, time is not on your side. Failing to act quickly can leave your organization even further behind.
But to see the value of a positive impact a system can have, stakeholders in an organization have to appreciate the challenges first.
This is where you come in. You can help quantify the problem within your organization and provide data to help make the case for change.
Go through the exercises in the next section using data from your organization to identify your current situation and the size of the potential opportunity.
Tools to Assess the Situation in Your Organization
Throughout the past decade of working with AEC (among other industries managing complex projects), four common pain points continuously arise for those who have yet to transform their process.
We’ll provide context around the problems and share equations with examples to help you uncover the savings from a modern project requirements and regulatory compliance solution. Remember to adjust the variables according to your company’s metrics to get a more precise estimate, and rethink how your team functions.
Improving any one of these four aspects of your process produces real savings. While the calculations on the following pages aren’t cumulative, they impact one another and can add up to significant value for your organization.
This is the potential of using a modern digital platform. If realized, it can radically change your business and be the competitive edge you need in today’s market.
THE FOUR COMMON PAIN POINTS
Unproductive Work Time
Lengthy Time-to-Completion
Rework
Project Issues
Unproductive Work Time
Are your days spent in inefficient meetings, sifting through emails and document versions for historical information or waiting for reviews and approvals? You’re not alone. Many teams suffer the repercussions of archaic, siloed project work. A modern process maximizes efficiency by tackling the root causes of momentum-killing delays and holdups.
Calculate how much unproductive work time is costing your business and imagine the possibilities of getting that time back. What could you do with
one extra hour each day?
We’ve seen long status meetings shrink or vanish when teams have the right solutions in place. Think about your team’s schedule and adjust the average time saved per person based on the time spent in meetings each week.
Lengthy Time-to-Completion
Time-to-completion and quality are usually seen as compounding challenges. Conventional wisdom says the quicker you complete a project, the more likely it is to have issues, and vice versa.
Understanding the impact of change, capturing decisions, communicating feedback, and reusing existing intellectual property — all aspects that can help speed time-to-completion — can be improved with a modern project requirements and compliance management solution.
Cost savings can certainly be great and have an impact on your bottom line, but don’t forget the qualitative implications. Consider what it would mean for your
company’s reputation to complete high quality, compliant projects faster.
Rework
In our experience, approximately 30-50% of a given project is rework. Rework is any time spent on extra work — including mid-project changes, incorrect testing, unnecessary scope creep, or fixing problems — and it costs your company big time. Requirements errors cause the majority of rework. Improving the ability to track requirements from definition through testing to catch changes and adjust scope can ensure you’re doing or building the right thing and massively reducing overall lifecycle costs.
Complete the equation below to get an understanding of the number of hours your team spends in rework and the value of that in working hours alone.
If your organization is working on more than one project at a time, repeat this calculation for each and add up the savings for a holistic view.
Project Issues
It’s common for a project to experience issues at some point between launch and completion. The important thing is to have a system in place that can quickly and accurately identify and track their impact up and downstream. This provides visibility into the issues as early as possible when it’s less detrimental to fix.
This calculation factors in personnel hours, but you should also think about the cost of delays and missed opportunities. Plus, should issues go undetected due to sub-par project requirements or testing, achieving incomplete compliance or delivering lower-quality projects could have devastating consequences.
Five Key Elements to Help Shape Your Decision
Now that you have a clearer picture of the opportunity a new solution can bring, how should you assess the available options?
There are five key elements you’ll need to factor into your decision. There are multiple facets to each component, so we’ve laid out what to look for as you’re evaluating solutions.
1. Requirements/Compliance Process
From defining and prioritizing, to reviewing, negotiating, and approving, to verifying and validating changes, project requirements and compliance management is an ongoing, complex process. A single source of truth and visibility helps minimize interpretation — often a top barrier to success.
With Jama Connect you can:
Create and Analyze Traceability – Traceability ensures that project requirements have been met and verified, providing necessary evidence from the requirements and compliance management process. Jama Connect allows you to easily produce traceability documentation required by certifiers and contract deliverables. Your Trace Score™ enables you to continually measure and improve your process.
Reuse and Baseline Management – Compare versions of a requirement, generate branches to develop a variant, and create catalogs of reusable project requirements to improve requirements and compliance.
Manage Risk Analysis – Jama Connect helps teams identify and mitigate risks earlier, saving teams from frustrating late-stage changes and supporting the path to safety, environmental, and security regulatory compliance.
Reviews and Approvals – Increase early stakeholder visibility and participation in the review process cutting review cycles drastically.
Maintain Audit Trails and Export Data – Real-time reporting and baselining allow you to track all changes to information within the system, including timestamps and associated users. Data is easily exported from Jama Connect if your current process dictates release to customers or partners as contract deliverables or storage in a document management system.
Verification and Validation – Seamlessly manage traceability to verifications and validations, providing evidence to comply with government regulations and standards or contract requirements.
2. Compliance and Reliability
When regulatory compliance is necessary, you want a solution you can trust. We help you get ramped up quickly with templates, training and documentation aligned with regulatory agency regulations and industry standards they reference as an acceptable means of compliance. A platform’s features can inherently ease the process of proving compliance.
A respectable solution instills trust through:
Relationship rules aligned to Trace Matrix needs, configured item types, pick lists and views, workflows guiding, requirement acceptance, and project and export templates.
Export Templates to support document generation from Jama Connect. Remote consulting is available to apply style and align with the customer’s desired output.
Customer Success Programs supported by the Jama Software Professional Services team to ensure systems adoption success with your team’s information — and exclude noise that may cause unnecessary risk.
OUR SUCCESS PROGRAMS: AN ACTION ORIENTED APPROACH, DESIGNED FOR HOW YOUR TEAMS WORK
At Jama Software, we put client success at the forefront of everything we do. We are dedicated to helping you achieve your business goals and accelerate time to value. Jama Connect Success Programs are designed to help you align your people, processes, and data to maximize the success of your project requirements and compliance management process. We work with your team to quickly onboard and launch Jama Connect. Learn more here » jamasoftware.
An efficient rollout increases adoption and shortens your time-to-market. There are many aspects to consider when updating your process. An expert can assist with process alignment and optimization to ensure a smooth launch and operation. When you purchase Jama Connect, our consultants partner with you to adapt Jama Connect to fit your process and build adoption of Jama Connect within your organization.
Alignment Phase
The alignment phase aims to determine and implement the best use of Jama Connect for your organization based on an understanding of your processes, business objectives and desired team workflow. This phase includes:
Preliminary project planning and discovery sessions to understand your people, process, and data as it pertains to requirements management, verification and validation, and risk management.
Onsite workshop or remote working sessions focused on alignment of processes to governing regulations.
Consultants partner with you to determine exporting needs and properly configure standard templates to generate necessary documentation
Your Jama Software consultant will work with the core implementation team to prepare Jama Connect for use by end users, over a small number of remote working sessions if needed.
Launch Phase
Once Jama Connect is ready to use, your Jama Software consultant will lead a remote or onsite training to show your teams how to use Jama Connect. Following the training, your consultant will be available remotely to provide assistance in other activities as needed to support your initial implementation.
4. Customer Experience
Customer experience should be a driving force — not an afterthought. A project requirements and compliance management solution must have the functionality to get the job done, but added benefits like customer care, collaborative consultants and online user communities help turn things like a potentially frustrating experience into a delightful exchange. For a top-notch customer experience, look for:
A partner who will have your back. Whether it’s a technical issue or you just want assistance with process improvement, you need to know the person on the other end of the phone will take the time to troubleshoot and thoughtfully consider your situation.
Quick and consistent support. You need a support team that makes you a priority. We offer 24/7 support for any production outages.
Industry experts. Sometimes you need consultants to help with getting started and maximizing value from a new solution. Make sure you’re working with experts who understand your needs including process alignment, deployment and adoption, training and optimization.
An active, user-led customer community. The ability to leverage insights from your peers — those solving the same challenges as you — is priceless. The Jama Software User Community connects users with educational resources, support, articles, and ideas to get the most out of your Jama Connect experience.
5. Adoption
Software on its own won’t solve any of your organization’s problems. Your team needs to use it as intended to reap the benefits. And for people to willingly adopt it, the introduction of the software must be seamless.
A convoluted tool that doesn’t match your company’s process or workflow will result in teams reverting to rudimentary methods.
Look for a solution that:
Works with any project requirements and compliance management process. A solution should fit your way of working, not the other way around.
Leverages a balanced license structure. Not everyone in your company creates and edits content, but they still need visibility and a voice in the conversation when necessary. Jama Connect offers named licenses for core users and floating licenses for those who access it less frequently.
Incorporates familiar behaviors. An intuitive understanding of certain aspects of the software will go a long way in making the solution feel like second nature.
Provides customized training. Training centered around your people, process and data can improve deployment for minimal negative impact on your teams.
Gives you an opportunity to test drive the software through a trial. Key stakeholders can get their hands dirty interacting with both the functionality and one another to
determine how relatively seamless it is to use.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/2024-09_best-practices-to-rm-guide-for-aec-ebook-1-1.jpg5121024Jama Software/media/jama-logo-primary.svgJama Software2024-09-25 03:00:252024-09-23 09:49:14Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements and Compliance Management Solution for Complex Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Projects
Jama Connect and CATIA: Traceable MBSE™ Integration through Cameo DataHub
For teams taking a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach to systems development, managing complexity and ensuring traceability are crucial. Jama Software’s integration with CATIA Magic, powered by Cameo DataHub, offers a streamlined solution collaboration between requirements, architectures, and mission needs. This integration bridges the gap between Jama Connect and CATIA’s tools, allowing teams to enable a federated data architecture approach and equip stakeholders with a deeper understanding of the system model.
As a leader in MBSE solutions, CATIA Magic supports SysML standards. Its commitment to following these standards allows for seamless customization to industry-specific needs, making it a powerful choice for complex system engineering projects.
Integration Benefits
This integration enables real-time synchronization of any Jama Connect data or model element with CATIA Magic, ensuring that teams can collaborate effectively while maintaining traceability across both tools. This connection simplifies complex workflows and enhances the accuracy of a system model’s requirements and architecture, eliminating manual work and reducing errors.
By supporting custom data mappings, bidirectional synchronization, and standard authentication methods, this integration empowers system engineers to trace changes, visualize updates, and maintain alignment across their tools — ensuring not only more informed decision making but also an increased confidence in the system design, and a more efficient engineering process.
Capabilities from a dedicated requirements management tool such as Jama Connect have built-in collaboration, configuration management, baselines, managing traceability across multiple levels of objects, managing the verification and validation activities, controlling access and change to objects using role-based permissions, and showing real-time workflow states at the object level. Jama Connect’s built-in workflow engine and dashboards give any stakeholder a 1000-foot view, a measurable view of status and progress, and exceptions to the defined systems engineering process.
Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by Cary Bryczek, Matt Macias, Kenzie Jonsson, and Decoteau Wilkerson.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/2024-9-24-jama-connect-with-catia-via-cameo-datahub.png512986Jama Software/media/jama-logo-primary.svgJama Software2024-09-24 03:00:492024-10-04 10:06:18Jama Connect® and CATIA: Traceable MBSE™ Integration through Cameo DataHub
Conquering the Top Test Management Challenges in Product, Systems, and Software Development
Effective test management is essential to deliver high-quality products, systems, and software on time and within budget. As development projects grow in complexity, managing the testing process becomes increasingly challenging. From coordinating teams to handling intricate data, test management can become a daunting task.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top test management challenges and provide actionable strategies to conquer them.
1. Coordinating Cross-Functional Teams
The Challenge: One of the biggest challenges in test management is coordinating cross-functional teams. In modern development environments, testing often involves collaboration between developers, QA engineers, product managers, and sometimes even external stakeholders. Miscommunication or lack of alignment among these groups can lead to delays, errors, and ultimately, a product that doesn’t meet customer expectations.
The Solution: To overcome this challenge, establish clear communication channels and define roles and responsibilities early in the project. Implement regular stand-ups and meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Additionally, using collaboration tools like Jira, Confluence, or Slack can streamline communication and keep everyone aligned. It’s also essential to foster a culture of collaboration where feedback is encouraged and acted upon.
“Jama Connect® covers all the needs regarding requirements management. If anyone requires a tool for requirements, tests, and traceability, Jama Connect is perfect for it.” – Software Test Manager,Software Test Manager, Industrial Conglomerates Company
2. Managing Test Data
The Challenge: Managing test data, particularly in complex systems or software development, is another significant challenge. Test data must be relevant, up-to-date, and secure, especially when dealing with sensitive information. Inadequate test data can lead to incomplete testing, which increases the risk of bugs and compromised quality in the final product.
The Solution: Invest in test data management tools – like TestRail – that allow you to create, maintain, and secure test data effectively. Mask sensitive information to comply with data protection regulations and ensure that test data is regularly updated to reflect real-world scenarios. Automating the generation and management of test data can also save time and reduce the potential for human error.
The Challenge: In today’s fast-paced development environments, especially with the adoption of Agile and DevOps methodologies, testing teams often struggle to keep up with rapid development cycles. Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices demand that testing be both thorough and fast, which can be a difficult balance to achieve.
The Solution: Automate as much of the testing process as possible. Automated testing tools can run tests quickly and consistently, allowing your team to keep pace with rapid development cycles. Prioritize test cases based on risk and impact to ensure that the most critical areas are tested first. Integrating automated tests into your CI/CD pipeline will help catch issues early, reducing the need for last-minute fixes.
“If working in Aerospace / Avionics engineering, Jama Connect is a solid option to handle requirements, elements of detailed design and Test artifacts. It also enhances cross-team collaboration through the Review Center, the Stream feature.” – Arthur Bouisson,Process Engineer, RUAG Real Estate
4. Handling Complex Test Environments
The Challenge: Test environments are often complex, involving multiple systems, configurations, and platforms. Setting up and maintaining these environments can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Moreover, inconsistent test environments can lead to false positives or missed defects.
The Solution: Leverage virtualization and containerization technologies, such as Docker or Kubernetes, to create consistent and reproducible test environments. These technologies allow you to simulate various environments and configurations with ease, ensuring that tests are conducted in conditions that closely mirror production. Additionally, maintain a detailed configuration management process to document and track changes in test environments.
5. Ensuring Comprehensive Test Coverage
The Challenge: Achieving comprehensive test coverage is a constant challenge. With the increasing complexity of products and software, it’s easy to overlook certain areas, leading to gaps in testing that could result in critical defects.
The Solution: Adopt a risk-based testing approach. Focus on areas of the product that are most critical or most likely to fail, and ensure these areas receive the most attention. Use code coverage tools to identify untested parts of your codebase and supplement manual testing with automated tests to expand coverage. Regularly review and update your test cases to reflect changes in the product or system.
“We know Jama Connect has improved our test coverage (>15%) and allowed for faster more comprehensive reviews. Interestingly, these reviews have found bugs or issues that were not uncovered by traditional directed and random testing.” – Jama Administation,Jama Administation, Internet Software & Services Company
6. Managing Test Automation Effectively
The Challenge: While test automation is a powerful tool for improving efficiency and coverage, managing it effectively presents its own set of challenges. Common issues include maintaining the test scripts, dealing with flaky tests, and ensuring that automation delivers the expected return on investment.
The Solution: Focus on building robust, maintainable test scripts by following best practices, such as modularizing your code and using descriptive naming conventions. Regularly review and update your automation suite to remove flaky tests and ensure that it continues to provide value. Finally, measure the effectiveness of your automation efforts through metrics like defect detection rates and test execution times, and adjust your strategy as needed.
The Challenge: Finding the right balance between manual and automated testing is another common challenge. Over-reliance on one approach can lead to inefficiencies and missed defects.
The Solution: Develop a testing strategy that leverages the strengths of both manual and automated testing. Use automated testing for repetitive, time-consuming tasks, and manual testing for areas that require human judgment, such as user experience and exploratory testing. Regularly evaluate and adjust this balance as your project evolves and new testing needs arise.
“We screened three of the top requirements, risk, and test management tools and found Jama Connect scored much higher than the competitors. Jama Connect definitely meets our user needs.” – Principal Systems Engineer,Principal Systems Engineer, Health Care Providers & Services Company
8. Poorly Written or Incomplete Requirements
The Challenge: A testing suite can only be as good as the requirements being tested. Poor quality requirements or missing requirements = untrustworthy testing results and increased chances of defects. This is preventable and it’s much more expensive to catch issues with requirements by the time testing is happening. It’s far better to improve requirements quality earlier in the process.
The Solution: Educate team writing requirements on best practice frameworks (e.g. Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax – EARS). Review requirements for completeness and quality before building out test coverage. Make sure there’s collaboration between test writers/testers and requirements authors in case there are questions.
9. Undetected Impact of Changes
The Challenge: Changes happen, and no one likes to be blindsided. It can be challenging to accurately measure the impact of change and communicate to all impacted stakeholders. Not communicating changes to the appropriate stakeholders can lead to wasted resources on tests that don’t apply or need to be updated, delays, recalls, etc.
The Solution: Establish a change control process. Use a tool that helps you track and visualize the potential impact of changes across connected bodies of work, processes, and stakeholders. Review potential impact, discuss tradeoffs, and communicate with impacted stakeholders.
“Jama Software® is always looking for opportunities to improve its requirement management tool offering by adding new features and applications (e.g. Testing, Risk Management, V&V, SW application integration tools, etc.) – Jama Software listens to customer feedback for possible improvements to Jama Connect” – Director,Internet Software & Services Company
Conclusion
Test management is a critical component of successful product, systems, and software development. By addressing these common challenges with proactive strategies, you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your testing efforts. Clear communication, effective use of tools, and a balanced approach to testing will help you deliver high-quality products that meet both business objectives and customer expectations.
In the end, the key to conquering these challenges lies in continuous improvement. Regularly assess your testing processes, learn from past mistakes, and be willing to adapt to new tools and methodologies. With the right approach, even the most daunting test management challenges can be overcome.
a
Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by Ashley Ernst and McKenzie Jonsson.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/Test-Management-1.png10801920Ashley Ernst/media/jama-logo-primary.svgAshley Ernst2024-09-19 03:00:252024-09-19 11:06:32Conquering the Top Test Management Challenges in Product, Systems, and Software Development
Connect with the Jama Software® Team in Person: Our Fall 2024 Event Lineup
Join the Jama Software® team in person this fall at some of the industry’s most exciting events. Whether you’re attending to learn about the latest trends in cybersecurity, systems engineering, requirements management, or Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), our team of subject matter experts will be on hand to meet, discuss, and demonstrate how Jama Connect® can help you tackle complex development challenges.
Below is our lineup of events for September and October—let’s connect!
SIDO Lyon Cyber Expo – Lyon, France – September 18-19, 2024
About this Event: Jama Software is exhibiting alongside Sofiatech at SIDO Lyon, the premier event for innovation in IoT, AI, XR, and Robotics! Visit us at Booth E334 — we’re excited to connect with forward-thinking leaders and innovators shaping the future.
AUTOMA 2024 – Dusseldorf, Germany – October 14-16, 2024
Industry: Oil & Gas
Jama Software Representatives:Mate Harsing, Solutions Architect and Vlad Tanasescu, General Manager – ICE
Booth Number: 23
About this Event: The AUTOMA Congress is a B2B networking event focused on automation and digitalization throughout the oil & gas lifecycle. Connect with us at Booth 30 to see how Jama Connect empowers oil & gas companies to improve efficiency, quality, and schedules while reducing overall costs.
About this Event: Insuretech Connect is the world’s largest gathering of insurance innovation! Discover solutions to your biggest challenges, gain access to unique and meaningful education, and meet the insurance industry’s best and brightest.
MedTech Conference – Toronto, Canada – October 15-17, 2024
Industry: Medical Device & Life Sciences
Jama Software Representatives:Vincent Balgos, Director – Solutions & Consulting and Jason Gaither, Senior Account Executive
Booth Number: 503
About this Event: The MedTech Conference in Toronto is where industry innovators come together to drive the future of healthcare. Visit Booth #503 to connect with Jason Gaither and Vincent Balgos for live Jama Connect demos, expert insights, and exclusive swag!
Autodesk University 2024 – San Diego, USA – October 15-17, 2024
Industry: Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC)
Jama Software Representatives:Joe Gould, Senior Account Executive, Steven Meadows, Principal Solutions Lead, and Kevin Andrewjeski, General Manager – Growth Markets
Booth Number: 163
About this Event: Autodesk University unites professionals from architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, and entertainment to forge connections, celebrate innovations, and bring the future of AEC to life.
Congress ELIV 2024 – Bonn, Germany – October 16-17, 2024
Industry: Automotive & Semiconductor
Jama Software Representatives:Matt Mickle, Director – Solutions & Consulting, Stefan Stange, Managing Director – Sales, and Neil Stroud, General Manager – Auto & Semi
Booth Number: 41
About this Event: Join us at ELIV Congress 2024 and discover the future of digital innovation in automotive electronics, software and application industry!
About this Event: We’re sponsoring the TSIA World Envision Expo in Las Vegas, where tech executives and professionals gather to network, connect, and explore solutions. Visit us at Booth #226 and join our Expo Theatre Session on Wednesday, October 23, at 12:15 PM to discover the power of Jama Connect.
Reuters Automotive USA 2024 – Detroit, Michigan, USA – October 21-23, 2024
Industry: Automotive & Semiconductor
Jama Software Representatives:Neil Stroud, General Manager – Auto & Semi and Steve Rush, Principal Solutions Consultant
Booth Number: 18
About this Event: Reuters’ Automotive USA is the automotive industry gathers to hear from trailblazing OEMs, innovative solution providers, and government agencies tackling today’s biggest challenges. Be sure to stop by the Jama Software booth #18 and say hi!
NDIA 27th Annual System and Mission Engineering Conference – Norfolk, Virginia, USA – October 27-31, 2024
Industry: Aerospace & Defense,
Jama Software Representatives:Cary Bryczek, Director – Solutions & Consulting and Rob Wilmot, Senior Account Executive
Booth Number: 4
About this Event: The Annual Systems & Mission Engineering Conference gathers defense professionals from industry, government, and academia to discuss improving defense acquisition and system performance. Jama Software is hosting a workshop on Monday, October 28 at 5:00pm in the Imagination Meeting Room. No prior experience with MBSE or Jama Connect is required. Space is limited. Contact us to learn more!
We’re excited to meet with you and explore how Jama Connect can optimize your complex projects. Don’t miss this chance to connect with our experts, dive into the latest innovations, and gain insights tailored to your specific needs. Be sure to mark your calendar and reach out to schedule a one-on-one conversation at any of these events!
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/2024-9-18-event-promotion-part1-1.jpg512986Jama Software/media/jama-logo-primary.svgJama Software2024-09-18 03:00:142024-09-23 11:00:02Connect with the Jama Software® Team in Person: Our Fall 2024 Event Lineup
The Jama Software® Discovery Center: Learn the Value of Jama Connect® for Complex Development
Welcome to the Jama Software® Discovery Center — a dynamic resource designed to guide you on your journey with Jama Connect®. Whether you’re just beginning to explore modern requirements management or you’re an experienced user looking to optimize your processes, the Discovery Center provides everything you need— right at your fingertips. Learn about Jama Connect and grow your knowledge at your own pace with this comprehensive resource.
Explore the Four Key Areas of the Discovery Center
The Discovery Center is organized into four main areas, each designed to meet you wherever you are on your journey with Jama Connect or simply better understanding how to optimize complex product, systems, and software development.
Here’s an overview of what you can expect:
Discover – Just starting out? Begin your journey in the Discover section, where you’ll find a wealth of resources to help you grasp the fundamentals of modern requirements management. This area is equipped with a comprehensive buyer’s guide, best practices for requirements management (RM), and insights on how centralizing your RM can mitigate risks in product development. Whether you’re evaluating RM tools or seeking to refine your current processes, this is the ideal starting point.
Explore – Curious about how Jama Connect can address your development challenges? The Explore section is for you. Here, you can delve into how Jama Connect® can cater to your specific product, systems, or software development needs. Access curated resources, including customer stories, a complimentary 30-day trial of Jama Connect, and our Get Started video series. This section is designed to facilitate informed decision-making by demonstrating why industry-leading organizations worldwide, choose Jama Connect.
Align & Launch – Ready to implement Jama Connect or better understand what that might look like? The Align & Launch area serves as your go-to resource for successful installation and adoption of Jama Connect within your organization. This section provides key resources to support implementation planning, including FAQs, installation tips, and an in-depth examination of the platform’s features and functionality. It encompasses everything you need to ensure a seamless transition and effective rollout.
Optimize – Already using Jama Connect and seeking to maximize its potential? The Optimize section is tailored for users who want to enhance their environment and ensure long-term success. Here, you’ll find comprehensive information on the REST API, optimization videos, workshops, tutorials, and other tips and tricks to help you fully harness the power of Jama Connect’s robust capabilities.
The Jama Software Discovery Center is more than just a resource collection — it’s a comprehensive guide that empowers you to take control of your knowledge journey with Jama Connect. Whether you’re discovering, exploring, aligning, launching, or optimizing, the Discovery Center is here to support your success every step of the way.
Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by Decoteau Wilkerson, Kenzie Jonsson, Karrie Sundbom.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/2024-09-10_discovery-center_024x512-1-1-1.jpg5121024Jama Software/media/jama-logo-primary.svgJama Software2024-09-12 03:00:202024-09-20 14:10:21The Jama Software Discovery Center: Learn the Value of Jama Connect for Complex Development
In this blog, we’ll recap our recent webinar, “Achieving Success in Energy Storage Development: Tips & Best Practices” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.
Achieving Success in Energy Storage Development: Tips & Best Practices
Are you prioritizing the safety and success of your energy storage systems (ESS) development?
Teams developing ESS must prioritize product safety and effectively navigate the certification process. By learning best practices and gaining insights into Underwriter Laboratories (UL) standards, they can enhance safety and ensure compliance with industry regulations.
You’ll gain a thorough understanding of these topics and more:
Proven best practices for energy storage system development
Key tips for achieving certification to UL standards
How Jama Connect®‘s pre-defined framework supports successful energy storage systems development and ensures compliance
Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and learn how a modern requirements management solution can streamline your energy storage development efforts.
Below is an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.
Steven Meadows: Welcome to today’s webinar on achieving success, as well as energy storage development tips and best practices. So for today’s webinar, we’re going to dive into some essential topics that are going to be very important for successful and safe energy storage system development and successful certification. So our agenda really is going to cover a few areas, including key tips for achieving certification with UL standards and development best practices, Jama Software’s perspective on development challenges, and the effective use of Jama Connect for managing the development of energy storage systems, as well as a sneak peek into our new energy storage development framework.
Now, before we get started, I’d like to briefly introduce myself and my background. My name is Steven Meadows and I’m a principal solutions lead here at Jama Software. With a pretty robust background in requirements management, I bring around about 10 years of experience in implementing software and working with hardware and software teams across a broad spectrum of industries, helping important market game changers really succeed in their development efforts. Now, throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with many, many incredibly innovative and life-changing organizations, helping them navigate the intricate landscape of engineering. So Jama Software, my focus has been on empowering teams to achieve their project goals efficiently and with precision. Whether it’s harnessing the full capabilities of Jama connect the platform or strategizing for complex project scenarios and engineering scenarios. My passion really lies in delivering tangible results that drive innovation and enhance operational excellence. Today I’m excited to be joined by Chris Flueckiger who will be talking about energy storage development best practices and certification tips. He’s a bit of a guru in the space. Would you like to introduce yourself, Chris?
Christopher Flueckiger: Sure. Thank you. It’s nice to meet everybody. I’ve spent about the first half of my career working with the design phase of electrical equipment and then the past almost 30 years in the certification of renewable energy systems including battery energy storage systems. So I’ve been working with large companies. I work with all the certifiers currently and represent companies as they look towards certification, all the way from the concept and design of a product through the final certification in marketing and installation. So I look forward to talking with everybody.
Flueckiger: This is going to be interesting. In a half hour, we’re going to try to cover the complexity of certification, but to do so in a way that’ll provide efficient moving from the development of a product to the marketplace. And this is an image of that process when we talk about certification. It starts with a list of documentation, knowledge, and an understanding of what applies to your product. And to go back just one step, it’s understanding what your standards and codes are that are driving that certification of your device. You’ll see the blue text here that represents work that you can do ahead of time to ease the process of certification when you actually present your product to the certifier. And this blue information here is a collection of documentation and evidence, if you will, that your product indeed complies with whatever standards might apply.
When we’re talking about energy storage systems, we’re looking primarily at UL9540 and UL9540A. And the code that drives that is going to be the NFPA 855. And so all these little blue boxes are critical as we prepare for our submission for certification. I will say that not having this information as you enter into certification results in significant time delays, and resource costs as far as samples needed, retesting, redesign, etc. And so what we’re going to do is go through some of these critical points here and discuss how we can make it easier, what we can do to prepare better so that we can be as efficient as possible. Just an example of how efficiency can help you, a typical certification of an energy storage system is going to take about … Well, it could be anywhere from 14 to 16 weeks. We’ve had some certifications that have taken more than a year to complete when they haven’t been prepared properly or they’ve had to be redesigned or test results have come back that have shown a lack of compliance with the UL9540 standard. So it’s critical that we move forward in a smart, organized, and efficient manner.
Talking about the beginning of this whole process is a knowledge of all of your codes and standards that apply to your energy storage system. It’s more than just a marketing scheme. It’s a legal requirement that devices are certified or proven safe to the authorities having jurisdictions or AHJs that approve those installations in one of the many, many, approximately 3000 different jurisdictions across the United States. Those codes are called out by the building codes. From there it calls out specific codes for electrical and fire safety. And those codes are adopted by local jurisdictions giving them some teeth. They’re legislated into effect, which gives them the legal basis as a requirement in order to install an energy storage system within a particular jurisdiction. And that legal basis is important. When we talk about certification, often companies see it as a necessary step, maybe even an obstacle that they have to achieve just to get their product to market, but it has more meaning than that.
It basically establishes a bar of entry for electrical devices that are suitable and acceptable for installation in specific jurisdictions. Now in the United States, we fortunately have the NFPA 70 or National Electrical Code that drives those requirements for safe electrical equipment, and that follows through along with the fire codes. So there is a legal basis for doing this. And yes, it can be time-consuming and it can be costly to go for certification, but it’s a necessary step in order to demonstrate that our products meet the industry standards for a level of safety. We do that basically as a consensus agreement within the industry on the requirements that are established both in the codes and in the standards. So it’s not simply a checkoff, it is an integral part of the safety of our electrical systems in the United States.
Meadows: Have you worked with teams in the past, maybe missed the upfront research around codes and standard requirements, and any examples of some of the impacts of that?
Flueckiger: Oh, absolutely. And oftentimes, as I say, they’re looked at as a necessary evil and bypassed, if you will, during the design phases. And then they come back later with those requirements and try to implement them at the last minute. And that often requires redesign of electrical circuits, repackaging of the product, et cetera. So it can be rather detrimental and costly to wait until the end. Good question.
So when we look at typical requirements that are included in the standards and the codes, we’ll be referencing UL9540 quite often here. They’re broken down into three major categories. We have your general construction requirements, and this is your design, right? These are the components that you’re putting together into a package that provides whatever functionality you are advertising or you’re stating that your energy storage system will provide. For example, you may have an input voltage of 480 volts. You might have an output voltage of 120 volts, whatever the case might be. You may have a certain amount of energy storage and, a number of batteries in your system that operates in a certain way to provide either backup power or to even maybe clean up a microgrid someplace in an industry, for example. But all of those general requirements for ratings rely on construction. Everything from the wire nuts holding two wires together or the connectors, all the way to the batteries and through the whole system with cooling systems potentially, and other systems that make up a part of the whole system that you’re looking to market.
And so those general construction requirements are basically material type requirements, component requirements, and mechanical requirements, and all of them are specified or delineated in UL9540. From the electrical side, we have a little bit more to deal with as well. For example, there are different circuits in battery energy storage systems. We may have an AC connection, we may have a DC set of batteries, we may have an inverter that is making that DC energy usable to the outside world, etc. All of those different circuits within the system have to be isolated from each other so that we don’t have somebody touching an antenna on a communications device and getting 480 volts at that antenna. We want to make sure they’re safe and that they’re separated. And one of the common things that’s missed along the way is that isolation. Spacing is a word that’s commonly used in electrical to define how we develop that isolation using air, for example, as an insulator.
We also might use materials that we talked about in the general construction requirements that have certain dielectric strengths to them so that we don’t have arc over within electrical circuits going from a high voltage, for example, to low voltage. So that’s an important part that has a huge impact on whether or not design is adequate, the design of your circuit boards, your interconnection of devices, etc. Whether or not they’re adequate to meet the requirements of the standards.
And then that follows by those individual components that we’re interconnecting. Whether it’s the batteries, the interconnection to a battery management system or a charging system to an inverter, to a fan, to a cooling system, or an HVAC system depending on the size of your system. But those components that make up the structure have to be relied upon in order to function safely. Not only to function safely but to produce the desired output that’s required of your energy storage system, whether it’s AC or DC, whether your input is AC or DC. All those components work together and are interconnected to produce the output and the functionality of your system.
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/Achieving-Success-in-Energy-Storage-Development-Tips-Best-Practices.png9001600Steven Meadows/media/jama-logo-primary.svgSteven Meadows2024-09-10 03:00:092024-09-26 13:20:02[Webinar Recap] Achieving Success in Energy Storage Development: Tips & Best Practices
Jama Connect Features in Five: Jama Connect Interchange – What Sets Us Apart
Learn how you can supercharge your systems development process! In this blog series, we’re pulling back the curtains to give you a look at a few of the powerful features in Jama Connect… in about five minutes.
In this Features in Five Integration Series video, Mario Maldari, Director of Solutions Architect at Jama Software – will demonstrate the Jama Connect to Jira integration via Jama Connect Interchange™.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Mario Maldari: Hello. My name is Mario Maldari and I’m the Director of solution architecture here at Jama Software. Today we’ll be discussing the Jama Connect to Jira integration via our Jama Connect Interchange. We’ll be focusing on some specific advantages and differentiators that our integration provides for our clients. These advantages provide added value to our integration and allow our clients to better meet the needs of their process and ultimately speed up their development time with improved quality.
Let’s start in Jama Connect’s Live Trace Explorer™ and analyze gaps in coverage between system requirements and user stories. We can easily drill down into the trace view and identify gaps within our coverage. Once the gaps are identified, we can create new user stories to satisfy the coverage and improve our traceability score. Let’s go ahead and do that.
You’ll now see the gap in coverage for this particular item has been satisfied and is no longer being flagged by the tool. One unique aspect of our Jira integration is that a user can configure the synchronization interval. It can range from 15 seconds to up to 24 hours. This built-in flexibility allows for the integration to be customized to meet the needs of many different process flows and organizational needs.
Maldari: Navigating back to the user story that we just created in Jama Connect, you will now see an integration URL has been populated to the corresponding user story that was just created in Jira. In this case, the synchronization was quick, 15 seconds. Any subsequent update made to the item in Jira will synchronize and reflect back in Jama Connect with the same frequency. This way the two tools are always kept in sync and there is essentially no lag time.
Another major differentiation that our integration provides is the ability to create conditional rules for the integration. This allows users to be very specific about conditions for the creation and synchronization. They do not have to worry about the burden and overhead of sinking their entire project. They can be very specific regarding the conditions.
As an example, imagine a process that dictates that a new user story in Jama Connect will only get created in Jira when the Jira status in Jama Connect is set to do. This provides the requirements manager a level of process control where they can review the user stories and determine which ones and when they should be created in Jira.
In the Jama Connect Interchange configuration, if I navigate to the creation rule tab, I can see that there is a rule for user story creation. It’s configured to be triggered when the Jira status is set to do. I can add any number of rules and conditions based on my particular process flow. This allows for customization at a lower level and does not require the entire project to be synchronized.
Now let’s see how this works in Jama Connect. Utilizing Jama Connect’s List View, I can see which stories do not currently have a Jira status field set. I can review these and determine that I would like them to be created and synchronized to my Jira project. I can utilize the bulk edit feature and set the status for multiple items at a time.
Maldari: Because of the conditional rule I have set in my Jama Connect Interchange settings, all three of these user stories will be created in Jira and participate in synchronization. You will see that the Jira URL has now been populated and the corresponding item has been created in Jira. This is just an example, but you can imagine how this flexibility can be applied across your projects and specific to your attributes.
Another important distinction to note is how relationships in Jama Connect and Jira are maintained through the integration. This allows for a more holistic, contextual view of how requirements and user stories relate outside the direct linkage of the integration. For example, as a developer in Jira, I may want to have a reference to how the requirements relate to upstream and downstream links. By choosing a relationship type and performing a field mapping, I’m able to get this reference to display as web links in Jira. As a developer in Jira, this allows me to get a sense for the overall context of the traceability.
In this example, a developer will see a user story come into their queue, and they will have a web link reference to the upstream and downstream requirements in Jama Connect. This provides them with additional context while working on developing the user story. They are even able to navigate directly to those items in Jama Connect for further detail.
One of our core philosophies at Jama Software is making our tools easy to use and therefore easy to adopt and maintain. Our integration to Jira is no exception. The user interface is point and click and the field mapping has intelligence built in that does most of the work for you. It’s also worth noting that we do not require you to be a Jama Connect administrator to set up, configure, and utilize our integration. Jama Connect Interchange also provides detailed event logging, which allows IT teams to monitor events and current status of the configured integrations.
As you can see, the Jama Connect to Jira integration offers teams a robust set of features with configuration options to meet various organizational needs. This flexibility and ease of use combined with specific well-thought-out functionality sets us apart from other requirement tools in Jira integrations. To find out more about our Jama Connect to Jira integration through our Jama Connect Interchange, please reach out to your customer success manager or visit our website today at jamasoftware.com
https://www.jamasoftware.com/media/2024/09/FIF-JCI-New-Integration-series-1.png10801920Mario Maldari/media/jama-logo-primary.svgMario Maldari2024-09-06 03:00:102024-10-04 10:10:24Jama Connect® Features in Five: Jama Connect Interchange™ – What Sets Us Apart
