Tag Archive for: Product Development & Management

Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Oil & Gas

In this blog, we recap a section of our recent eBook, “Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Oil & Gas” – Click HERE to read the whole thing.

Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Oil & Gas

Use a Single Platform to Manage the Complexity of Standards Compliance and Product Development

Increasing complexity due to enhanced global and local regulatory scrutiny and rapidly evolving technological advancements causing cost and scheduled overruns is a top challenge for oil & gas companies in two key areas:

Standards & Practices Compliance

Oil and gas companies face numerous challenges in demonstrating compliance with the increasingly complex standards from local, state, and national regulatory agencies, as well as adhering to industry best practices and corporate guidelines. The first reason that problems arise is because these companies often attempt to manage critical processes using Word, Excel, or PDF document-based technology. While this manual approach may be adequate for simple projects, it fails as complexity and scale increase. The second reason is that companies continue to rely on legacy document management software such as SharePoint for tracing, storing, sharing, and retrieving standards documents, despite 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 standards to engineering requirements
  • Managing updates and implementing changes across concurrent projects
  • Collaborating effectively at a granular level around standards
  • Creating an audit trail around sign-off and implementation of standardsMitigating error-prone assessment of the impact of making changes to standards

Exploration and Delivery Product Development

Oil & gas companies that develop products such as undersea robots that support exploration and delivery face their own set of challenges. First, the use of document-based technology or siloed point software
solutions fails to keep up with the increasingly complex hardware and software systems and subsystems that must perform flawlessly together. Second, reliance on manual tools that are not optimized for managing a
complex development process often results in inefficient teamwork and late detection of defects. As a result, companies find themselves:

  • Relying on inefficient meetings or email communications involving internal, partner, and supplier teams to discuss, review, and approve product requirements and tests
  • Missing opportunities to detect defects and other issues early in the development process when it is typically easier and less costly to ensure product quality and performance
  • Incurring contractual penalties or losing revenue due to delayed availability or delivery of products
BOTTOM LINE

The increasing complexity and reliance on outdated tools make it difficult for oil & gas companies to efficiently comply with and show compliance to all relevant standards and/or develop products that meet internal or customer needs.

RELATED: Requirements Traceability Benchmark

What if you didn’t have to compromise?

This Buyer’s Guide incorporates insights from Jama Software®’s more than 15 years of experience partnering with forward-thinking development teams and industry experts. We’ve designed a platform that helps oil & gas companies efficiently manage standards compliance and/or product development. This allows them to:

  • Take advantage of modern digital solutions
  • Manage standards with more confidence and efficiency
  • Manage exceptions throughout development to help create better-quality products
  • 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 oil & gas organizations to manage standards compliance and/or product development complexity by replacing documents and legacy tools with a single digital platform that provides a single source of
truth which is easily accessible by all stakeholders at any time. When standards and/or product requirements, architecture, V&V, 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. That makes getting executive buy-in easier.

If your company is not considering the importance of transitioning to a more modern, streamlined compliance and/or development process, time is not on your side. Failing to act quickly can leave your organization even further behind. But in order to see the value of the 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.

RELATED: The Strategic Transition: From Word and Excel to Modern Requirements Management

IDENTIFYING THE BUSINESS VALUE
Tools to Assess Compliance and Development Pain Points

Throughout the past decade of working with oil & gas among other organizations managing complex compliance and/or development projects, four common systems development 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 standards compliance and development 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 COMPLIANCE AND/OR DEVELOPMENT PAIN POINTS

  • Unproductive Work Time
  • Lengthy Time-to-Market
  • Rework
  • Problems or Defects

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS EBOOK IN ITS ENTIRETY:
Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Oil & Gas

Unlocking Development Success: Jama Connect® vs. Word & Excel for Requirements and Traceability

Proactive and Live Traceability™ in Jama Connect® vs. Retroactive and Lagging Traceability in Excel

Incremental increases in product development complexity can lead to an exponential increase in the effort required from Engineering and Research and Development teams to keep up in a document-based (Word/Excel) environment.

PROBLEM

Our medical device & life sciences team has thousands of conversations per year with people interested in product and systems development improvements.

When we look at customer data over the two years prior to adopting Jama Connect, 83% of these organizations had their traceability maintained in an Excel-based matrix.

In this environment, all of the traceability components are maintained in a separate system (in other documents or tools). What we found was that this led to traceability being disconnected from the actual design. And in these cases, this delta was maintained and updated manually.

Updating the Excel-based traceability matrix to reflect changes or new artifacts is always a manual process.

Because this process is not automated, it takes a significant effort and is also highly error-prone. On a small scale, it can be manageable. But once a change is made, managing it effectively in this way becomes a significantly greater problem. We found that these events can exponentially increase both the level of effort needed to maintain traceability and the risk of a negative outcome or occurrence. We’ll provide some examples of this shortly.

As organizations make incremental improvements and changes, or grow and scale the company further, the manual, Excel-based process can become a major bottleneck. Because the level of effort associated with changing this workflow can seem too big of a task to complete, process improvements are de-prioritized. We see an exponential scale difference between an increase in complexity and the difficulty in managing traceability in Excel manually – tightening this bottleneck. Even a slight increase in complexity can lead to a high-severity issue/business impact/time waste.

As an example, let’s take a simpler medical device (a single-use catheter). Here are a few examples of how you could have the traceability schema established:

  • 1-2 levels of requirements traceability (e.g., User Need > Product Requirement > Verification, or User Need > Validation)
  • Few items per level at each level in the hierarchy (e.g., 5 User Needs, 10 Product Requirements, and 1-2 Verifications/Validations)

As described in the example below, this means for simple products like a single-use catheter, there are roughly 225-440 possible trace relationships:

Let’s now imagine that we want to make a seemingly simple change and additional functionality to the device. We want to connect the catheter to a mobile application, so it can monitor its usage and analyze it for diagnostics purposes.

As this device is now part of a “system” with two major sub-system components, we break down the “product requirements” into two separate levels: “system” and “sub-system” requirements.

The complexity associated with managing requirements and maintaining traceability increases exponentially. For example, we’ve outlined a common example of a Class II system, where you can see that a 4x – 10x increase in the number of User Needs translates to a 15x – 24x increase in the total number of trace relationships that need to be managed.

An increase of 4x-10x in the number of User Needs translates to a 15-24x increase in the total number of trace relationships that need to be managed.


Here are a few common real-world scenarios where we see this complexity change occurring; A couple of examples of other complexity increases for a medical device organization:

  • A medical device with a newly added component and functionality (software, electrical, mechanical, hardware, etc.)
  • A research use application (RUO) that is reclassified as an IVD – becoming a diagnostic device
  • A medical device startup going from an R&D phase into having a product out in the market
  • A medical device being implemented into a larger system
  • Expanding into different markets and adhering to new regulations (US FDA, EU MDR, etc.)
  • Introducing product families, product lines, and variations to more effectively reuse existing components

The more this process/tool improvement is delayed, the higher the risk to the business.

We see this happening to medical device companies both big and small. Here are a few of our customers describing the problem.

RELATED: The Strategic Transition: From Word and Excel to Modern Requirements Management

Microsure

“With Word and Excel, if something is changed and a link is broken, that document is gone and it’s literally floating around somewhere in the cloud without linkage to anything. This makes it very scary, especially from a quality or regulatory perspective. Our Word and Excel process evolved with the organization and therefore it was put together layer by layer, making it really hard to have the full depth of knowledge about how the quality system works.” – Rene Wenmekers, Director of Quality & Regulatory, Microsure

“We work in a highly regulated environment, and Microsure’s product has hundreds of requirements on system, subsystem unit, and component levels. And from a regulatory documentation standpoint, information is scattered.” – Robin Brounds, Software Team Lead, Microsure

“When we make changes in medical device development, they need to be reported to the notified body. And when that change hits the level of ‘significant change,’ the whole documentation set needs to be provided to the notified body to be reassessed on safety and efficacy. Every time a requirement changed, it needed to be updated across the whole documentation path. This was not sustainable using Word and Excel, and it was risky.” – Rene Wenmekers, Director of Quality & Regulatory, Microsure

Convergent Dental

While using Word and Excel, Convergent Dental found themselves tracking across multiple documents, all with their own trace matrix tables relating to different requirements. The fallout from this process is that even a single word or letter change in a low-level subsystem requirement led to updating corresponding requirements documents in their trace matrix tables. So, a single letter turns into not one change but potentially six changes across five different documents.

“We have a small team with a large amount of features and updates to perform on an ongoing basis. We all work really hard here, and there’s no option to be dead weight. Getting rid of that wasted time in Word and Excel and getting our test engineers back to work is the ultimate goal.” – Craig Woodmansee, Electrical Systems Engineer, Convergent Dental

NEGATIVE BUSINESS IMPACTS – of not changing

Wasted Time and Inefficient Processes

  1. In a complex setting (working with a complex product, highly regulated environment, high-risk product, cross-functional teams working together, lots of different product variations, target customers/markets, etc.), this can be a person or a team’s full-time effort to keep up to date.
  2. Time is being spent on people trying to find the right and most up-to-date documents
  3. Sitting through review and alignment meetings with all stakeholders

Increased Risk of Negative Outcomes
This process relies on people constantly monitoring and updating each change. If a change goes unnoticed or people forget to update traceability, this gap is difficult to notice. If traceability gaps are noticed later during the product development lifecycle, there is a significant increase in the risk of one of the following negative events happening:

  1. Releasing a faulty & untested product, quality compromise, product callbacks
  2. Forcing organizations into late-stage changes that are costly to implement
  3. Regulatory issues and audit findings (non-conformities, FDA warning letters, etc.)
  4. Product not meeting the original requirements and customer/stakeholder needs

The expected outcome – backfilling documentation and traceability at the very end of the project.

Real outcome – Many issues/gaps went under the radar, leading to project delays, missed deadlines, or regulatory/quality issues:

Decreased Organization Maturity, Disconnected and Siloed Teams

  1. Enforce the defined process – In a document-based environment, it’s close to impossible to monitor and enforce the defined process
  2. Impact on employee tenure – Engineering and R&D are forced into manual documentation instead of actual design & development
  3. Impact on talent acquisition – High-quality talent is more attracted to companies with proper tooling and processes in place
  4. Communication and Transparency – Audit trails and change logs are often lost, hard to keep people accountable for changes

RELATED: Loram Rides the Fast Track to Software Safety with Jama Connect®

SOLUTION

The solution to this problem is having integrated risk management with Live Traceability™ in Jama Connect®. Jama Connect will be the overarching system across all product development initiatives, bringing together all disciplines, making it significantly easier to visualize complex traceability hierarchies, replacing the manual effort needed to keep the documentation up to date, etc.

Jama Connect® brings comprehensive and detailed insights into your complex product, systems, and software development processes – automating the measurement of requirements traceability and coverage across disciplines and your organization’s toolchain.

This level of visibility helps eliminate rework due to out-of-date information; and the biggest fear for engineering leadership – that the greatest risks to a project are unseen until it is too late.

Understanding UN155 and Its Impact on Cybersecurity Management
Understanding UN155 and Its Impact on Cybersecurity Management

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, staying ahead of emerging threats and regulations is crucial for organizations worldwide. One such regulatory framework making waves in the cybersecurity community is UN155. This post aims to shed light on UN155 and its significance in cybersecurity management.

What is UN155?

UN155 is a regulatory framework established by the United Nations to enhance cybersecurity practices across various sectors. The framework sets forth comprehensive guidelines and standards for organizations to protect their information systems, data, and infrastructure from cyber threats. It emphasizes a proactive approach to cybersecurity, encouraging organizations to implement robust security measures and continuously monitor and adapt to the evolving threat landscape.

RELATED: Jama Connect® for Automotive

Key Components of UN155

UN155 encompasses several critical components designed to strengthen cybersecurity management:

  1. Risk Assessment and Management: Organizations are required to conduct regular risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities and threats. This involves evaluating the likelihood and impact of various cyber risks and implementing appropriate mitigation strategies.
  2. Incident Response and Reporting: UN155 mandates the establishment of incident response plans to swiftly address and mitigate cybersecurity incidents. Organizations must also report significant incidents to relevant authorities, ensuring transparency and accountability.
  3. Data Protection and Privacy: Protecting sensitive data is a cornerstone of UN155. Organizations must implement stringent data protection measures, including encryption, access controls, and data minimization, to safeguard personal and sensitive information.
  4. Continuous Monitoring and Improvement: UN155 emphasizes the importance of continuous monitoring and improvement of cybersecurity practices. Organizations are encouraged to regularly review and update their security measures in response to new threats and vulnerabilities.
  5. Training and Awareness: Educating employees about cybersecurity risks and best practices is crucial. UN155 requires organizations to conduct regular training and awareness programs to ensure that staff members are equipped to recognize and respond to cyber threats.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Automotive

The Impact of UN155 on Cybersecurity Management

The implementation of UN155 has significant implications for cybersecurity management:

  1. Enhanced Security Posture: By adhering to the guidelines set forth by UN155, organizations can significantly enhance their security posture. Proactive risk assessments, robust incident response plans, and continuous monitoring contribute to a more resilient cybersecurity framework.
  2. Regulatory Compliance: Compliance with UN155 is not just a best practice; it is often a legal requirement. Organizations that fail to comply with the framework may face legal penalties, reputational damage, and financial losses.
  3. Improved Incident Response: With established incident response plans, organizations can respond more effectively to cybersecurity incidents. This minimizes the impact of breaches and ensures a quicker recovery, reducing downtime and financial losses.
  4. Increased Stakeholder Confidence: Demonstrating compliance with UN155 can enhance stakeholder confidence. Clients, partners, and investors are more likely to trust organizations that prioritize cybersecurity and adhere to recognized standards.
  5. Global Harmonization: UN155 promotes a standardized approach to cybersecurity, fostering global harmonization of security practices. This is particularly important for multinational organizations operating in diverse regulatory environments.

UN155 represents a significant step forward in the global effort to enhance cybersecurity management. By adopting the framework’s guidelines and principles, organizations can bolster their defenses against cyber threats, ensure regulatory compliance, and build trust with stakeholders. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, frameworks like UN155 play a pivotal role in shaping a secure and resilient digital future.

Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by McKenzie Jonsson and Matt Mickle.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Requirements Management

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Requirements Management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere – from healthcare, to finance, to customer service – the integration of AI into various business processes has become a game-changer. One area where AI’s impact is particularly profound is in requirements management, a key process in product, systems, and software development.

Effective requirements management is crucial for the success of any project, ensuring that the final deliverables align with stakeholders’ needs and expectations. By leveraging AI, organizations can enhance their requirements management processes, leading to improved project outcomes, increased efficiency, and reduced risks.

Understanding Requirements Management

Requirements management involves the process of gathering, analyzing, documenting, and managing the needs and requirements of stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. It ensures that all project requirements are clearly defined, tracked, and verified, minimizing the chances of misunderstandings and errors. Traditional requirements management, while effective, can be time-consuming and prone to human error. This is where AI steps in, offering innovative solutions to streamline and enhance the process.

RELATED: How the EARS Notation Supports Effective Requirements Management and Live Traceability™

The Role of AI in Requirements Management

  1. Automated Requirements Elicitation: AI-powered tools can automatically gather requirements from various sources, such as emails, documents, and meeting notes. Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms can analyze text data to extract relevant information, saving time and ensuring that no critical requirements are overlooked.
  2. Intelligent Document Analysis: AI can analyze and interpret complex documents, identifying key requirements and relationships between them. This capability allows for more accurate and comprehensive requirements documentation, reducing the risk of misinterpretation and gaps.
  3. Enhanced Traceability and Impact Analysis: AI can improve traceability by automatically linking requirements to their corresponding design elements, test cases, and implementation tasks. In the event of a change in requirements, AI can quickly assess the impact on the project, providing valuable insights for decision-making.
  4. Predictive Analytics and Risk Management: AI can analyze historical project data to identify patterns and predict potential risks and challenges. By leveraging predictive analytics, organizations can proactively address issues before they escalate, ensuring smoother project execution.
  5. Real-time Collaboration and Feedback: AI-powered collaboration tools facilitate real-time communication and feedback among stakeholders, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. These tools can also provide intelligent suggestions and recommendations, enhancing the quality of discussions and decisions.
  6. Continuous Learning and Improvement: AI systems can continuously learn from past projects and refine their algorithms, leading to ongoing improvements in requirements management processes. This continuous learning capability ensures that organizations stay ahead of the curve and adapt to evolving project needs.

Case Study: AI in Action

Consider a software development company implementing AI in their requirements management process. By using an AI-driven tool, the company automated the elicitation of requirements from client emails and documents. The tool identified and categorized requirements, linking them to specific project tasks and design elements. This automation reduced the time spent on manual documentation by 50%, allowing the team to focus on higher-value activities.

Moreover, the AI tool provided real-time impact analysis when changes were requested by the client. It quickly identified affected areas, allowing the team to make informed decisions and adjust project plans accordingly. The result was a more agile and responsive project management process, leading to increased client satisfaction and successful project delivery.

Conclusion

The integration of Artificial Intelligence in requirements management represents a significant advancement in how organizations handle complex projects. By automating routine tasks, enhancing traceability, and providing predictive insights, AI empowers teams to deliver high-quality projects on time and within budget. As AI technology continues to evolve, its impact on requirements management will only grow, offering even more innovative solutions to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s projects.

Organizations that embrace AI in their requirements management processes will not only improve their project outcomes but also gain a competitive edge in an increasingly dynamic and demanding business environment.

Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by McKenzie Jonsson and Mario Maldari.

RELATED: Best Practices for Writing Requirements Webinar

Unleash the Full Potential of Your Requirements with Jama Connect Advisor™

Successful product delivery starts with precise, well-written requirements that align design, software, and hardware teams with clear project goals. Jama Connect Advisor™ is a cutting-edge tool powered by natural language processing, guiding system engineers and product developers to create effective requirement specifications based on INCOSE and EARS standards.

Teams are using Jama Connect Advisor to:

  • Improve the quality and usability of requirements
  • Save time authoring, reviewing, and updating requirement statements
  • Continuously enhance team requirement authoring skills with regular use
  • Deliver programs and projects on time and on budget with long-term success

LEARN MORE:
Improve the quality of your requirements, save time, and enhance team skills with Jama Connect Advisor™.

How to Overcome Development Challenges: Collaboration & Alignment in Complex Product, Systems, and Software Development

In the dynamic world of product and software development, effective collaboration is crucial for success. However, teams often face significant challenges that can hinder progress and innovation. Understanding these challenges and finding robust solutions is essential for seamless and productive teamwork. One such solution is Jama Connect®, a powerful platform designed to enhance collaboration and streamline development processes. In this blog post, we will explore the common challenges in collaboration and how Jama Connect can help overcome them.

Common Collaboration Challenges in Product and Software Development

1: Communication Gaps

  • Problem: Miscommunication or lack of communication can lead to misunderstandings, errors, and delays. With team members often working remotely or across different time zones, keeping everyone on the same page can be difficult.
  • Solution: Jama Connect provides a centralized communication platform where all team members can access the latest information, updates, and discussions. This helps ensure everyone is aligned and informed, reducing the risk of miscommunication.

2: Fragmented Documentation

  • Problem: Keeping track of documentation and ensuring it is up-to-date can be challenging, especially when it is spread across multiple tools and platforms. This fragmentation can lead to confusion and inconsistencies.
  • Solution: Jama Connect offers a unified repository for all project documentation. Teams can create, store, and manage documents in one place, making it easier to maintain consistency and quickly find the necessary information.

“Jama Connect has a very powerful user interface, traceability, coverage, revision history, and review collaboration. The verification and validation plan runs are great for program tests traceability.” – Ander Solorzano, Principal Systems Engineer, Astrobotic

3: Requirement Mismanagement

  • Problem: Managing requirements effectively is critical in product development, but it can be challenging to track changes and ensure all requirements are met. Mismanagement can result in overlooked or unmet requirements, leading to product issues and customer dissatisfaction.
  • Solution: Jama Connect’s requirements management capabilities allow teams to define, track, and manage requirements throughout the development lifecycle. This ensures that all requirements are documented, tracked, and verified, reducing the risk of oversight.

RELATED: Why Choose Jama Connect® Over Microsoft Word and Excel Documents for Requirements Management

4: Lack of Visibility

  • Problem: Limited visibility into the project’s progress and status can hinder decision-making and delay issue resolution. Team members and stakeholders need a clear view of the project’s health to make informed decisions.
  • Solution: Jama Connect provides real-time visibility into project status, progress, and potential roadblocks. Dashboards and reporting tools offer insights into key metrics, helping teams identify issues early and take corrective action.

5: Inefficient Review and Approval Processes

  • Problem: Traditional review and approval processes can be time-consuming and prone to bottlenecks. Delays in getting approvals can slow down the entire development process.
  • Solution: Jama Connect streamlines review and approval workflows, allowing teams to collaborate efficiently. Automated notifications and reminders ensure that reviews and approvals are completed promptly, keeping the project on track.

“Prior to selecting Jama Connect, we had experience with other platforms, we had multiple trials and settled on Jama Connect because of how innovative it is. Especially in areas of Collaboration, Ease of Use, and the ability to configure and integrate with other lifecycle tools.” – Sr Principal Business Analyst and Enterprise Architect, Biotechnology Company

How Jama Connect® Facilitates Effective Collaboration

1: Centralized Platform

  • Jama Connect serves as a single source of truth for all project-related information, enabling seamless collaboration. Team members can easily access and share information, ensuring everyone is working with the latest data.

2: Real-Time Collaboration

  • With real-time collaboration features, Jama Connect allows team members to work together on documents, requirements, and tasks simultaneously. This reduces delays and fosters a more collaborative environment.

3: Traceability

  • Jama Connect ensures end-to-end traceability, allowing teams to trace requirements, design, implementation, and testing back to the original source. This traceability helps maintain alignment and accountability throughout the development process.

“Jama Connect is a centralized platform for managing requirements, fostering collaboration, and ensuring alignment across global teams.” – Sekhar Ghandikota, Senior Engineer, Ford Motor

RELATED: Traceable Agile™ – Speed AND Quality Are Possible for Software Factories in Safety-critical Industries

4: Customizable Workflows

  • The platform offers customizable workflows that can be tailored to fit the specific needs of the team. This flexibility ensures that teams can implement processes that work best for them, improving efficiency and collaboration.

5: Integration with Other Tools

  • Jama Connect integrates seamlessly with other popular development tools, such as Jira, Slack, and GitHub. This integration helps teams maintain a connected ecosystem, reducing the need to switch between different tools and platforms.

“Jama Connect offers robust collaboration features, traceability and API endpoints. Throughout the development process, efficiency is gained.” – Sekhar Ghandikota, Senior Engineer, Ford Motor

Conclusion

Collaboration is the cornerstone of successful product and software development, but it comes with its own set of challenges. Jama Connect addresses these challenges by providing a robust platform that enhances communication, documentation, requirement management, visibility, and workflows. By leveraging Jama Connect, teams can overcome collaboration hurdles, streamline their development processes, and ultimately deliver high-quality products.

Are you ready to transform your collaboration and take your product development to the next level? Explore Jama Connect today and see how it can help your team achieve its goals.

Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by Kenzie Jonsson.

ENR 2024 Top 500 Sourcebook: Plant Tests Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal

Jama Software is always looking for news that would benefit and inform our industry partners. As such, we’ve curated a series of customer and industry spotlight articles that we found insightful. In this blog post, we share an article, sourced from Engineering News-Record, titled “ENR 2024 Top 500 Sourcebook: Plant Tests Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal” – originally published on July 16, 2024, and written by David Godkin.

ENR 2024 Top 500 Sourcebook: Plant Tests Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal

Arup begins feasibility study of commercial-scale facility set for Canada site

Engineering has begun on a project its developers say could mark a new foray into ocean-based carbon dioxide removal.

The Quebec-based plant would be North America’s first commercial-scale, ocean-based carbon dioxide-removal facility, according to startup developers Equatic Inc., based in Los Angeles, and Deep Sky Inc., a Montreal firm. They say the facility would remove nearly 110,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually—10% of which will be ocean-borne emissions. It also would produce 3,600 tonnes of hydrogen.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Oil & Gas

The plant technology uses a seawater electrolysis process developed at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering’s Institute for Carbon Management. The system draws ocean seawater into an electrolysis chamber where carbon dioxide molecules are separated from the water and its natural acidity is neutralized. “This in turn allows the ocean water to draw down more CO2,” says Phil De Luna, Deep Sky chief carbon scientist and head of engineering. “These carbon emissions are some of the hardest to abate and most difficult to electrify.”

Extracted carbon dioxide is stored in the form of solid calcium and magnesium-based substances that the firm says could be used to produce construction materials.

The technology is based on a $20-million demonstration plant, called Equatic-1, which is set to commission next year in Singapore in collaboration with its national water agency, the developers said.The commercial plant will have easy access to the ocean-connected St. Lawrence River, and could tap into Quebec’s massive hydroelectric grid.

RELATED: Traceable Agile™ – Speed AND Quality Are Possible for Software Factories in Safety-critical Industries

The facility would use less than 1.4 MW hours per ton of carbon dioxide, with removal cost estimated at less than $100 per ton by 2030, according to Equatic. Luna estimates the project’s cost at about $366 million. The plant may also be in line for carbon removal credits under a new U.S. Energy Dept. program, Equatic says, noting that such credits, as well as green hydrogen from this plant and future ones “have been pre-sold to companies such as Boeing, and further sales are ongoing.”

Engineering firm Arup has just begun a six-month plant feasibility study that is set to launch front-end engineering design work, environmental assessment and permitting, with a final investment decision estimated at the end of 2026.

If affirmed, construction on a 30-acre site would begin shortly after, with startup set for 2028. Deep Sky is currently exploring a plant location about 900 km northeast of Montreal, with a final site decision to be made by the end of 2024, the firm says.

[Webinar Recap] Managing Functional Safety in Development Efforts for Robotics Development

In this blog, we’ll recap our recent webinar, “Managing Functional Safety Development Efforts for Robotics Development” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

Managing Functional Safety Development Efforts for Robotics Development

Industrial manufacturing firms are undergoing rapid transformation as they navigate talent shortages, supply disruptions, digital adoption acceleration, and more. At the same time, they work diligently to accelerate time to market, streamline risk management, and keep accuracy and safety at the forefront.

In this webinar, learn about functional safety challenges during the development of complex robotics systems, and how to conform to IEC 61508. Also, learn about how Jama Software’s new robotics solution allows developers to quickly leverage a template and documentation to kickstart development efforts ensuring quicker time to market, and higher quality and safer products.

You’ll learn more about:

  • Functional safety development challenges
  • IEC 61508 best practices
  • Tips and tricks on certification
  • Jama Software’s new robotics solution offering and benefits

Below is a preview of our webinar. Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

The following is an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

Managing Functional Safety in Development Efforts for Robotics Development

Steven Meadows: Hi everyone, and welcome to the webinar on Managing Functional Safety and Development Efforts for Robotics Development. In terms of the agenda today, this is what we’re going to be covering. We’re going to start off with a speech and company introductions. We’ll then look at functional safety and providing IEC 61508 overview, associated challenges, and associated best practices. We’ll then switch gears and talk a little bit around Live Traceability™ followed by robotics development best practices. And then we’ll finally wrap up with Jama Software’s Robotics Solution. So let’s start with some speaker introductions. Go ahead, Nicole.

Nicole Pappler: Okay. Hey everybody. My name’s Nicole Pappler. I am a Senior Functional Safety Expert at AlektoMetis. I started working with safety-critical systems more than 20 years ago, working with automation, working with automotive, and other domains, and always moving around in safety-critical projects with safety-critical systems, being a developer, being a tester, being on the complete system side. About 10 years ago, I started then to work as an assessor of for functional safety at TÜV SÜD. And about three years ago, started together with my business partner, AlektoMetis to provide independent consulting and assessment services using all the experiences that we had up to now. If you want to Google me, I’m also active in several open source for functional safety, so you should be able to follow me around. If you want to contact me, my social media handle is nicpappler, so you can find me on GitHub Discord, and usually wherever you want to look.

As AlektoMetis, our company, together we have more than 20 years of experience. We provide a network of experts for functional safety, for cybersecurity, for multiple domains, so automation, railway, and automotive. And also, we can provide you with services regarding license compliances, processes, and quality management. We have a set of trainings and workshops available for functional safety, for security, or with our network, also for other topics that you need to cover for critical systems and to keep up to date and to drive topics forward, we participate actively in international committees for standard digitization like the IEC, ISO or DIN or also industry networks like the Bitkom, or the Industry Business Network 4.0.

Related: Jama Connect® for Robotics Datasheet

Nicole Pappler: So first of all, I’d like to give you an overview of what’s all this about with functional safety and with IEC 61508. So I’m sure you are here because you already heard about functional safety. Maybe you’re a pro or beginner with functional safety. So first of all, functional safety is the topic that’s associated with reducing risks that are associated with products that can be caused either by random faults, which means faults of a sense, or faults by the controller, just random things stop working or start working in a very inconsistent way. So one of the big topics in functional safety is really avoiding random faults, avoiding faults due to hardware components just dying on you. And the other big topic in functional safety is the avoidance of risk due to systematic faults.

So systematic faults are usually faults that happen during the development, that happen during deployment, or maintenance of a product that is due to topics that are not covered, that are due to hazards you have not considered. This is due to functions you haven’t implemented correctly or that haven’t been tested if they are correctly implemented and then go into the field in an inconsistent or insufficient way. So functional safety can be achieved then by the methods of engineering and of process application. It means the random faults you avoid by systematically identifying what are the critical components, what are critical parts, and other critical functions within your system. Then choose suitable and robust system architectures suitable and robust components and hardware parts to be integrated into your system.

And then to avoid systematic fault by applying a suitable development process, by applying suitable verification measures, by using a suitable deployment and maintenance process. And then also going into a suitable change management process for your system, so that you don’t add bugs and sufficiencies to your system that wouldn’t be there by definition. So easily, you don’t need to start thinking about how to do this on your own. So there are standards around. And the main functional safety standard is the IEC 61508. It’s a standard that talks about functional safety for electrical and electronic and in any kind of ways programmable safety related systems. And although there are a lot of other safety standards around, IEC 61508 is still not only the most generic, but also the most used and most applied standard, not only in other industries but specifically also in the automation industry.

Related: FORT Robotics Selects Jama Connect® to Replace Google Sheets for Product Development 

Pappler: So what will IEC 61508 help you with? So what is defined there? Most of it really consists of methods and definitions and explanations, how to do engineering and how to do the planning of your engineering, of the safety-relevant systems and equipment. Then with the process, how to reduce your development issues by planning ahead, by planning your resources, and by deciding what kind of methods are suitable for your kind of development. There are standard planning methods defined. You need to have a safety plan that’s more or less the project management plan thingy for your safety-relevant tasks. You have the definition of processes, so everything will be done in a consistent and traceable way. You will have templates though that you won’t have to invent the structure of a document that invents the structure of your definitions every time. Again, the standard also talks, let’s say on a very high level, but on a very important level about safety architectural requirements.

It walks you through a few basic architectural topics like one-channel systems, two-channel systems, and three-channel systems. How do you need to set them up? What are the minimum requirements regarding diagnosis you want to do live on these channels? So that already gives you a lot of help with the basic setup. What is the minimum requirement? And then you can go from there really deciding if is this sufficient for my use case. IEC 61508 also is very strong in the definition of verification activities, be this on the one hand side for inspections, for analyzers, for reviews of your plant concept, of your requirements of your specifications. And also on how to do testing on multiple stages of your development after deployment or during maintenance. It also guides you then after development, after production of your system, how to mitigate the issues or to avoid issues that might be introduced during installation or during the integration of your system into a bigger system.

This has been an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS WEBINAR IN ITS ENTIRETY:
Managing Functional Safety Development Efforts for Robotics Development

Jama Connect® Features in Five: Cameo Systems Modeler Integration

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, Gary Hayes, Senior Solutions Architect at Jama Software® – will demonstrate the Cameo Systems Modeler integration with Jama Connect® using Intercax Syndeia.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Gary Hayes: Hello, and welcome to the Features in Five Integration series. My name is Gary Hayes, and I am a Senior Solutions Architect at Jama Software. Today, we will be walking through the Cameo Systems Modeler integration for Jama Connect. We make it possible for you to integrate Jama Connect with preferred best-of-breed software to achieve Live Traceability™ across the end-to-end development cycle. Live requirements traceability is the ability for any engineer at any time to see the most up-to-date and complete upstream and downstream information for any requirement, no matter the stage of systems development or how many siloed tools and teams it spans. This enables significant productivity and quality improvements, dramatically reduces the risk of product delays, cost overruns, defects, rework, and recalls, and ultimately results in faster time to market.

Let’s start off today by looking at the two environments that we’ll be working with, Jama Connect and Cameo Systems Modeler. In Jama Connect, in our project here, we have a folder called swarming along with five requirements we’ve identified that we wanna be using. If we look over the Cameo System Modeler, you notice that we have the same folder, but we only have four requirements listed there.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution

Hayes: We can easily compare the items that exist in both environments, the four that you see here. We go into the plug-in that we’re using, identify the SysML repository, and we drill down on that folder that contains those requirements, and we can do a comparison between the source and the target. The plug-in will do the comparison for us. We don’t have to drill down and do a close examination.

When we get our results, we see that everything is green, indicating to us that the items in the folders that have been synchronized indeed match at this point. We can close this out for the time being, but you’ll keep in mind that we only have four requirements in Cameo, but we have a fifth one that does not exist currently in Cameo that is in Jama Connect. So we want to make sure that both environments do indeed match, and we can do that easily by dragging and dropping using that same plug-in.

We go back into our dashboard. We find our SysML repository, and we find our Jama Connect project that we’re working with. Drill down on that to find those requirements that currently are being synchronized between the two environments. We can easily see that we have the swarming folder along with its five requirements from Jama Connect and four from our Cameo environment. And to match those up, we want to drag and drop this into our Cameo environment.

And you’ll notice over here as it brings that over, you notice in the background, the cameo environment updates automatically to reflect the fact that we’ve brought a new requirement into the cameo environment. We can further confirm that by doing a synchronization check, doing that comparison once again at the folder level, compare our source and target, and hopefully, we’ll get all green one more time to show that the environments do indeed match up. But we don’t always have the luxury of dragging and dropping and never making any changes in any environment, so what we’ll want to do is make a change in one environment and push that from one side to the other. So let’s go into this individual requirement, broadcast to Swarm, and it’s annotated that it is indeed from Jama Connect. So we’re gonna remove that annotation in its title.

RELATED: Traceable Agile™ – Speed AND Quality Are Possible for Software Factories in Safety-critical Industries

Hayes: We’ll go ahead and save that in our Jama Connect environment. You’ll notice that’s updated. Now we want to be able to show that same type of update. We’ll do that comparison first to see where we’re at because we never know when changes will occur. We can do our compare, make sure that comparison actually works, and flag us for a change. And indeed, we do. It comes up as pink or red, depending on your monitor, and flags us that there has been a there’s a discrepancy between the two environments. And you’ll notice too that it does the comparison. It doesn’t automatically make the change, and you can see that in the background. And in our Cameo environment, that change has not rolled over from Jama Connect to Cameo. So let’s make that change, permanent now. Let’s go ahead and do that push. We can push from our target to our source.

Keep your eyes on the Cameo environment in the background. As we make that change and it gets pushed over, you’ll notice that the name or the description of the requirement in Cameo indeed has changed, and so that has been updated automatically for us. We can do one last check with our compare tool, comparing source and target. So we get all green just for one additional factor of confidence that we get there, and you can see it there. So that’s one way to keep your Cameo and Jama Connect environments in sync using a plug-in.

Thank you for watching this Features in Five session on the Cameo Systems Modeler integration for Jama Connect. If you’re an existing customer and want to learn more, please reach out to your customer success manager or consultant. If you’re not yet a client, please visit our website at jamasoftware.com to learn more about the platform and how we can help optimize your development process.

To view more Jama Connect Features in Five topics, visit:
Jama Connect Features in Five Video Series

[Webinar Recap] Excelling in Requirements Management for Successful Software Delivery and Implementation

In this blog, we’ll recap our recent webinar, “Excelling in Requirements Management for Successful Software Delivery and Implementation” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

Excelling in Requirements Management for Successful Software Delivery and Implementation

Are you interested in understanding the fundamentals of effective requirements gathering and analysis for the delivery of software?

In this webinar, Steven Meadows, Principal Solutions Lead at Jama Software®, discusses the challenges posed by traditional document-centric requirements processes to support customer-focused projects.

You’ll gain an understanding of:

  • Best Practices: Transitioning to more Agile and collaborative requirements management approaches to enhance project execution.
  • Case Studies: Real-world examples highlighting successful adoption of modern requirements management practices in vendor implementation projects.
  • Key Metrics: Learn how a requirements management platform can help improve project metrics for customer implementations.

Below is a preview of our webinar. Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

The following is an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Software Development

Meadows: Effective requirements management not only accelerates project timelines but also improves stakeholder collaboration and reduces the risk of project deviations.

An integral part of today’s discussion will be a deep dive into Jama Connect, a powerful tool designed to facilitate comprehensive requirements management. We’ll explore its features and functionalities that enable teams to capture, trace, and validate requirements throughout the implementation of software.

Whether you’re new to Jama Connect or seeking to optimize your current usage, this segment will provide valuable insights into leveraging the platform effectively.

Lastly, I’ll describe a case study that illustrates a successful implementation of requirements management strategies. This real-world example will demonstrate how an organization has overcome challenges, implemented best practices, and achieved tangible benefits using advanced tools and methodologies for the implementation of solutions.

By the end of this webinar, you should gain actionable insights to enhance your approach to requirements management, ultimately driving greater efficiency and success in your software delivery projects.

Now, before we get started, I’d like to briefly introduce myself and my background. With a robust background in requirements management, I bring over 10 years of experience in implementing software solutions across a broad spectrum of industries, successfully managing complex project engagement.

Throughout my career I’ve had the privilege of working closely with incredibly innovative and life-changing organizations, helping them navigate the intricate landscape of software implementation and delivery.

From defining clear and actionable requirements to optimizing workflows and ensuring seamless collaboration across teams, I’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of effective requirements management.

RELATED: Traceable Agile™ – Speed AND Quality Are Possible for Software Factories in Safety-critical Industries

Meadows: At 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 or strategizing for complex project scenarios, my passion lies in delivering tangible results that drive innovation and enhance operational excellence.

Today I’m excited to share insights, strategies, and practical advice that can help you elevate your approach to requirements management. Together we’ll explore key principles, delve into best practices, and then cover strategies that can empower your organization to excel in software delivery and implementation.

I’d like to spend a moment quickly introducing Jama Software, the company that I represent. Jama Software provides the sweetest solutions that span the entire product and systems development lifecycle, from capturing and managing requirements traceability to enabling collaboration among diverse teams, Jama Software has engineered a platform that aligns with the evolving needs of today’s businesses.

You’ll see on this slide some of the verticals that we support, including regulated industries like medical devices and aerospace and defense, as well as pure software development and industrial manufacturing.

Some of the ways that we help our customers realize value is by reducing project cycle times, increasing process efficiency, and gaining visibility and control into implementation and development efforts.

Before we get to the main content of this webinar, I want to spend a moment just quickly defining what is meant by software implementation and delivery.
This is mainly related to the implementation of off-the-shelf software, as well as highly configurable applications. We work with a lot of vendors who implement their proprietary software for their customers, in particular, we have several customers in the benefits and HR space, healthcare, as well as other regulated industries including non-regulated industries. Although we’ll be touching on software development throughout this webinar, we’ll mainly be focusing on the implementation activities of applications, the challenges that come along with the implementation, and best practices to mitigate issues throughout the delivery of software for customers.

This has been an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS WEBINAR IN ITS ENTIRETY:
Bridging ALM and MBSE: Strategies for Seamless Integration

Cyberattacks: Safeguarding Contractors

Jama Software is always looking for news that would benefit and inform our industry partners. As such, we’ve curated a series of customer and industry spotlight articles that we found insightful. In this blog post, we share an article, sourced from AECMagazine, titled “Cyberattacks: safeguarding contractors” – originally published on May 22, 2024, and written by Ben Wallbank.

Cyberattacks: Safeguarding Contractors

It’s every construction firm’s biggest nightmare: criminals taking control of their data and holding them to ransom. Ben Wallbank, Trimble, shares some best practices to mitigate cyberattacks

Cybersecurity and cybercrime often conjure up images of hackers in dark hoodies, sneaking in the digital back door. In reality, nearly 90% of corporate cybercrime, such as phishing or ransomware attacks, is a result of employee error.

The UK construction industry is no exception and could be an even greater target than other industries. Protecting massive amounts of data, including warranty and latent defect remediation periods, makes contractors attractive to cyber criminals. Cybersecurity is so crucial to construction that the National Cyber Security Centre produced a construction industry-specific guide, along with the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).

Cybercriminals who target the construction industry usually do so by accessing, copying, and sharing data illegally or by installing malware on a company’s computers and network, taking control of files, and holding them for ransom. It’s called ransomware, and it’s probably the most common and one of the most debilitating types of cybersecurity breaches in the construction world.

Each year, we hear of new cyberattacks, taking critical infrastructure offline and crippling construction businesses worldwide, including many here in Europe. These attacks cost billions of pounds a year and can cause whole cities, businesses, and services to grind to a halt.

UK contractors should follow these best practices to safeguard against cyberattacks and improve outcomes in case of an attack.

Create a business continuity plan

Preparing for the worst puts your business in the best position moving forward because you can act quickly and have more control of the outcome. A solid cyber security disaster plan can get quite detailed. It should be consistently reviewed, practiced, and updated to net the best results in case of an incident. At a minimum, a business continuity plan should include the following:

  • Name of a leader to act as a central resource to manage disaster recovery across multiple departments.
  • A communication plan for sharing key messages and managing crises with employees, clients, and additional project stakeholders.
  • A maintenance plan for a continually updated (and backed up) list of employee contact information and asset inventory.

RELATED: Six Key Challenges in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) Industry and How to Solve Them with Jama Connect®

Backup all data

A crucial aspect of any good cyber security plan is to make sure that everything is backed up, preferably on the cloud or physically on an offsite server that’s not on your network. Backups should be frequent and automated, so ask your IT provider to set them up so that they either happen in real-time (if you’re backing up to the cloud) or that they run daily after everyone has left the office.

Secure mobile devices

Mobile devices are more challenging to secure than other data systems, but just as critical. Utilizing an enterprise management platform, such as Cisco Meraki, allows you to maintain enterprise-level control over all of your devices. These kinds of platforms ensure that individual devices are still managed centrally, and contractors can limit software installation, track devices using GPS, disable devices, and more.

Protect software and servers

When it comes to software and security risks in construction, contractors should choose platforms and software providers that take security seriously. Granular permissions, user-friendly management systems, and multi-factor authentication, for instance, are all must-haves in any construction software.

By using cloud-based, connected construction software, contractors shift the responsibility of maintaining servers, ensuring SOC 2 Type II compliance, and data backup and storage. Project and business data backups happen automatically, providing daily protection, with costs often included or rolled into users’ subscription costs. New software features and security functionality are also rolled out automatically.

By coupling the backups with cybersecurity protections, cloud vendors use the latest technologies to thwart cybercriminals and provide an extra level of protection not otherwise achieved through in-house backups. When shopping for business software, make security one of your first discussion points.

Additionally, your web and email servers need to be properly protected to avoid online attacks. Physical network servers need to be secured, and you need to ensure that any cloud-based solutions you’re using also implement rigorous security protocols.

RELATED: Jama Connect® Amazon Web Service (AWS) GovCloud US Hosting

Assure employee buy-in

Cybersecurity protection in construction requires every employee at every level to be fully engaged and actively vigilant. There are several steps to take to make that happen:

  • Ensure all employees receive regular cybersecurity training, especially if online workflows or procedures change.
  • Welcome feedback from team members and update cybersecurity policies and processes as needed.
  • Counsel employees on everyday things to look for before opening email, like spelling and grammar errors, verifying sender’s email address, and never opening unexpected attachments.

Take the first step: get started

The most important step is the first one. The UK government offers two certifications – Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus – that are crash courses in the basics to keep businesses safer from cybercrime. While they don’t replace a cybersecurity risk assessment, they will show you how to do one and how to select the security measures your business needs.

Anywhere your data is stored or used is a potential entry point into your company’s digital existence. It only takes one slip to allow malicious code or ransomware in, and once it’s there, it can cause millions of pounds worth of damage.