Tag Archive for: traceability

In this blog image, we portray how Jama Connect surpasses Codebeamer for Requirements Management and Traceability.

In this blog, we recap a section of our eBook, “The Clear Choice: Why Jama Connect Surpasses Codebeamer for Requirements Management and End-to-End Traceability” – Click HERE to read it in its entirety.

The Clear Choice: Why Jama Connect® Surpasses Codebeamer for Requirements Management and End-to-End Traceability

To adapt to increasing industry challenges and complexities, innovative organizations are now requiring best-in-class software to scale development, reduce risk, save time, and ensure compliance to quality, safety, and security regulations.

As organizations strive to deliver innovative products while navigating regulatory requirements, the tools they use for requirements management and traceability can make or break their success. This eBook is designed to help you understand the critical differences between Jama Connect® and Codebeamer, two leading requirements management solutions, so you can make an informed decision.

The Requirements Sector

The landscape of requirements management has undergone significant transformation. Traditional tools (like IBM® DOORS®) which once dominated the market, are now considered outdated. These legacy systems often lack the flexibility, ease of use, and integration capabilities required by modern teams. As a result, organizations are turning to modern solutions like Jama Connect that are built to meet the needs of today’s dynamic development environments.

Why Jama Connect?

Jama Connect stands out as a leading requirements management solution because it is designed with the user in mind. Its modern, user-friendly interface, combined with powerful features like comprehensive traceability and real-time collaboration, ensures that teams can manage requirements and risks effectively throughout the product, systems, and software lifecycle. Jama Connect also emphasizes customer success, offering expert support and training to help teams maximize their investment. Ease of use, rapid deployment, pre-configured well-documented industry frameworks, and in-house subject matter experts provide the fastest time-to-value/ROI without sacrificing quality or safety.

RELATED: See why users rank Jama Connect as the #1 requirements management tool on the market in the most recent G2 Report

The Clear Advantages of Jama Connect Over Codebeamer

If you’re comparing Jama Connect to Codebeamer, one thing is clear — Jama Connect is the only purpose-built requirements management platform that delivers Live TraceabilityTM which allows engineering and other 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. In addition, Jama Connect accelerates your product, systems, and software development by managing user needs and product information across the end-to-end development lifecycle.

Only Jama Connect Delivers Live Traceability™ Across Best-of-Breed Tools

Other vendors lock you into inferior platforms. Only Jama Connect seamlessly integrates with your tools of choice across engineering teams.  Only Jama Connect can manage the state of development across all integrated teams and tools. Jama Connect’s unique and industry-specific Traceability Information Models define the relationships and expected behavior across teams and tools.

LEARN MORE

Our customers consistently tell us that they chose Jama Connect over Codebeamer for the following reasons:

1. Ease of Use and High Adoptability

Jama Connect’s intuitive design and user-friendly interface make it easy for teams to adopt and use. Unlike Codebeamer, which can be complex and challenging for new users, Jama Connect ensures that teams can start managing requirements effectively with minimal training. Users insist on a requirements management and traceability solution that is easy to use so that both internal and external stakeholders can efficiently access, share, and review information in a single source of truth, increasing and speeding up the adoption across teams for a better ROI.

The ease-of-use is not only imperative for users but also for administrators. Jama Connect offers an intuitive and user-friendly administration interface that enables admins to adapt the tool to their organization’s needs without having to learn overcomplicated configuration settings and concepts.

2. Modern Integration and Collaboration Capabilities

Jama Connect provides comprehensive traceability and impact analysis, enabling teams to manage change effectively and reduce the risk of errors. The platform seamlessly integrates with other best-of-breed tools (including Jira and Azure DevOps) in the development ecosystem, ensuring that teams can work efficiently without having to change their other development tools. In contrast, Codebeamer focuses on working solely with other PTC tools and its own limited application lifecycle management (ALM) capabilities.

Modern product and software development requires optimal real-time collaboration between stakeholders. Jama Connect provides an enhanced collaboration experience with its communication streams and advanced Review Center, enabling both internal and external stakeholders with the capabilities to perform formal and iterative reviews.

3. Intelligent Engineering Management

Jama Connect empowers Intelligent Engineering Management by addressing a critical challenge faced by engineering and product development organizations: the lack of real-time KPIs and metrics during development. This gap often leads to delays, budget overruns, and product defects or recalls. Jama Connect uniquely transforms traceability into a measurable instrument, enabling teams to track real-time metrics and KPIs throughout the product development process. By providing a comprehensive overview of project progress and aligning it with required processes, teams can identify gaps early, mitigate risks, and avoid missed requirements. With its Live Traceability™ and integrations with other best-in-breed engineering tools, Jama Connect ensures that both internal and external data are seamlessly managed, driving informed decision-making and on-time project delivery.

4. Strong Customer Support

We know that our customers need a support team that makes them a priority. That’s why Jama Connect offers unparalleled customer support (including 24/7 support for any production outages), with dedicated customer success teams that work closely with you to ensure you achieve your goals. In contrast, Codebeamer’s support can be limited, making it difficult for your teams to get the help they need when they need it.

5. Scalable and Flexible

Jama Connect is highly adaptable, making it suitable for a wide range of industries and project sizes. Whether your organization is in automotive, aerospace, medical devices, or another industry, Jama Connect can be tailored to meet your specific needs, often getting you up-and-running quickly with custombuilt data frameworks to satisfy your industries regulations and best practices. Additionally, the platform offers flexible deployment options, including cloud and self-hosted, giving you the freedom to choose the best setup for your organization.

6. Fastest Time to Market/ROI

Deploy Jama Connect’s easy-to-use interface in weeks, not months, with easy updates and high performance. Preconfigured frameworks are built-in to satisfy industry regulations and help teams ease the path to compliance, along with in-house industry focused subject-matter experts and exceptional customer support.

7. Lowest Total Cost of Ownership

With simple and straightforward administration and no need for custom scripting or continuous updating, Jama Connect has the lowest total cost of ownership in comparison to Codebeamer. Jama Connect scales easily without big infrastructure investment, and with unlimited no-cost access for extended internal/external stakeholders, all team members can be involved with additional costs.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS EBOOK IN ITS ENTIRETY:
The Clear Choice: Why Jama Connect Surpasses Codebeamer for Requirements Management and End-to-End Traceability

Traceability in Systems Engineering: A Key to Successful Construction Projects

In the world of systems engineering, “traceability” is a concept that plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of complex projects. While it’s a term more commonly associated with fields like aerospace, defense, and software development, its principles are increasingly being applied to construction projects to improve outcomes, reduce risks, and ensure seamless project delivery.

What is Traceability in Systems Engineering?

Traceability in systems engineering refers to the ability to link each requirement to its source and track its fulfillment throughout the project lifecycle. This process involves creating a chain of evidence that shows how each requirement was derived, implemented, verified, and validated.

Simply put, traceability ensures that every requirement is accounted for from the moment it is conceived until the project is completed. It enables project managers, engineers, and stakeholders to understand the origins, rationale, and status of each requirement, ensuring that nothing is missed or overlooked.

RELATED: The Complete Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK)

How Does Traceability Work in Systems Engineering?

  • Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM): A core tool in traceability, the RTM maps each requirement to its corresponding design documents, test cases, and validation outcomes. This helps ensure that every requirement is directly linked to project deliverables.
  • Bi-directional Traceability: This involves tracking requirements both forward (from requirements to design, implementation, and testing) and backward (from deliverables back to the original requirements). This helps in managing changes, assessing the impact of modifications, and maintaining alignment between project objectives and outcomes.
  • Change Control and Impact Analysis: Traceability helps in managing changes to requirements by providing a clear understanding of how any change will affect the project. This is crucial for managing scope, cost, and schedule risks.

Applying Traceability to Construction Projects

While traceability is a fundamental practice in systems engineering, its application in the construction industry is becoming increasingly valuable. Here’s how traceability can be applied to make construction projects more successful:

  • Ensuring Complete and Clear Requirements: In construction, poorly defined or misunderstood requirements are a leading cause of project delays, cost overruns, and rework. By applying traceability practices, construction teams can ensure that all requirements are clearly defined, documented, and understood by all stakeholders from the outset. This reduces the risk of ambiguity and miscommunication, ensuring that every stakeholder is aligned with the project’s objectives.
  • Managing Complexity and Change: Modern construction projects are complex, involving multiple teams, disciplines, and stakeholders. Changes are inevitable, whether due to design modifications, client requests, or regulatory updates. Traceability allows construction teams to track every change back to its source, understand its impact on the project, and ensure that all affected requirements, designs, and plans are updated accordingly. This reduces the risk of errors, omissions, and costly rework.
  • Improving Compliance and Reducing Risks: Construction projects are subject to numerous regulations, standards, and codes. Traceability provides a structured way to ensure that all project requirements meet the necessary compliance standards. By maintaining an audit trail of all requirements and their fulfillment, construction teams can quickly demonstrate compliance, reducing the risk of regulatory penalties, legal disputes, and reputational damage.
  • Enhancing Communication and Collaboration: Traceability fosters better communication and collaboration among stakeholders by providing a single source of truth for all requirements. It ensures that everyone, from architects and engineers to contractors and clients, has access to the same information and understands how their work contributes to the overall project goals. This reduces misunderstandings, promotes accountability, and enhances teamwork.
  • Facilitating Project Delivery and Quality Assurance: Traceability helps ensure that the project is delivered on time and within budget by enabling construction teams to proactively manage risks, anticipate challenges, and respond to changes efficiently. By maintaining a clear line of sight from requirements to deliverables, teams can ensure that all project goals are met, and quality standards are achieved.

RELATED: AEC Best Practices Guide to Requirements Management

Why is Traceability Critical for Construction Project Success?

  • Reducing Rework and Cost Overruns: Traceability minimizes the risk of errors, omissions, and changes that lead to rework—a significant cause of cost overruns in construction. Industry studies estimate that rework can account for 5-15% of total project costs. By ensuring that every requirement is correctly implemented from the start, traceability helps reduce these costs and keeps the project on budget.
  • Improving Stakeholder Confidence: Traceability provides transparency and accountability, which is critical for building trust with stakeholders, including clients, regulators, and project teams. When everyone can see a clear, documented path from requirements to outcomes, confidence in the project’s success increases.
  • Ensuring Compliance and Avoiding Legal Issues: With construction projects facing stringent regulations and standards, traceability helps ensure that all requirements are met, reducing the risk of non-compliance penalties, delays, and legal issues. It provides an audit trail that can be used to demonstrate compliance to regulators, clients, and other stakeholders.
  • Supporting Continuous Improvement: Traceability provides valuable data and insights that can be used to improve future projects. By analyzing the traceability data, construction firms can identify patterns, lessons learned, and areas for improvement, leading to better project planning, execution, and outcomes in the future.

Conclusion

Traceability is not just a concept reserved for systems engineering; it is a powerful tool that can transform construction projects. By applying traceability practices, construction teams can reduce costs, manage complexity, ensure compliance, and build stakeholder confidence. As construction projects become more complex and multidisciplinary, traceability will increasingly become a key driver of success, helping teams deliver high-quality projects on time and within budget.

By adopting traceability, construction firms can not only improve their current projects but also build a foundation for continuous improvement, innovation, and sustained success in the industry.

Are you ready to make traceability a cornerstone of your construction project strategy?

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

In this image, we portray the Integration of Digital Engineering and the Digital Thread for Semiconductor Design

Integrating Digital Engineering and the Digital Thread for Semiconductor Design

Preface:

In Marc Osofsky’s original post, “What is the Definition of a Digital Thread?”, he introduced Singh and Willcox from MIT’s definition of a Digital Thread and broke down each component of their definition. Building on that foundation, this post explores the application of the digital thread within semiconductor design — a field where the stakes are high and the need for integration has not only emerged as a strategic differentiator; but well… a requirement.

The semiconductor industry is at another crossroads, again. As Integrated Circuits (ICs) become increasingly advanced, the design process continues to grow more complex. Engineers and product teams wrestle with challenges ranging from ensuring power efficiency, manufacturability, meeting time-to-market demands, integrating diverse IP blocks, and adhering to stringent functional safety and cybersecurity standards. Within these challenges lie opportunities for those who adapt and innovate.

The Digital Thread: Connecting the Design Lifecycle

One of the most pressing issues facing semiconductor companies today is how to architect and deploy seamless software integration across the entire design lifecycle. Best-in-breed software tools are common within certain pockets of the IC development flow. The EDA titans do a great job on the front end of the design cycle and help their users create a firm handshake between a designer and their foundry and fabrication partners. However, end-to-end integration across the entire product development lifecycle continues to be highly sought after, but oftentimes difficult to obtain.

From initial requirements through design, simulation, verification, post-silicon validation, and production – the concept of the digital thread ensures that both internal and external stakeholders have access to a single source of truth for design and test information.

RELATED: How to Manage Cybersecurity in Jama Connect® for Automotive and Semiconductor Industries

The Role of EDA in Chip Design

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools are essential for managing the growing complexity of semiconductor design. They enable designers to automate time-consuming and error-prone tasks involved in chip design, such as synthesis, verification, and physical design.

When EDA tools become integrated with the digital thread, it unlocks the capability for front-end design data to flow seamlessly with the middle and latter stages of development; from concept to final tape-out. This EDA tool/digital thread integration not only improves efficiency but also enhances collaboration between different teams, reduces the likelihood of design errors leading to costly response, and ensures that ICs are ready for production faster.

The digital thread helps semiconductor teams manage the increasing complexity of chip design by providing a holistic view of the entire product lifecycle. Advanced process nodes introduce new constraints, including challenges related to thermal management, signal integrity, and power consumption. Design houses must manage these competing priorities with a robust design process while trying to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Even with the best processes and prioritization methods from the leading fabless chip designers and Integrated Device Manufacturers – there are often gaps.

The Role of Digital Engineering

Digital engineering is more than just adopting new software tools — it’s a cultural shift towards integrated, model-based approaches that ensure stakeholders across the product lifecycle have constant access to the information they need. The digital thread and a “single source of truth” are at the core of this transformation, providing continuous connectivity that bridges requirements throughout design, verification, and validation. Designers adopting these approaches are finding they can pivot more easily to implement design changes and minimize rework, resulting in measurable cost savings and faster development cycles.

Managing Requirements Effectively

Requirements management has become a critical success factor in semiconductor design. As designs grow more complex, so do the needs and specifications they must meet. A robust requirements management solution, integrated into the digital thread, helps ensure every requirement is tracked from conception through to production, allowing engineers to maintain clear visibility into design intent. Moving away from spreadsheets and adopting requirements management tools that are purpose-built for the semiconductor industry reduces errors, streamlines collaboration, and enables folks to produce better products.

RELATED: Leading Quantum Computing Company, IonQ, Selects Jama Connect® to Decrease Review Cycles, Reduce Rework

Opportunities in a Shifting Landscape

Semiconductor design is a dog-eat-dog world and not for the faint of heart. Technological advancements — such as the adoption of AI in design automation, the exploration of new materials, and advanced packaging techniques — are opening new frontiers. But capitalizing on these advancements requires strong foundations: an emphasis on effective communication, adaptable tools, and a focus on managing complexity holistically.

The digital thread concept is dual purpose and conveniently provides organizations with the foundation needed to monetize tangential opportunities around generative AI, data lake and delta lake development, and agential model development for IC design and manufacturing. Pairing digital engineering and digital thread concepts with a modern requirements management system will not only alleviate many current challenges – but it also builds resilience for future innovations and will help identify and capture currently unrealized revenue streams.

The Bottom Line

The semiconductor industry is evolving rapidly. Those who embrace new methodologies and tools with end-to-end capabilities are well-positioned to succeed. Adopting a digital engineering approach that marries the concept of a digital thread with a formal requirements management platform is likely a key focus area for your competition. If it isn’t yet a key focus area or cornerstone of your organization, check out www.jamasoftware.com and contact us today for a no-cost consultation with our experts.

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.

Jama Connect® Features in Five: Git Repository 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, Atef Ghribi, Senior Solutions Architect at Jama Software® – demonstrates a Git repository integration with Jama Connect® using a repository in GitLab.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Atef Ghribi: Hello and welcome to the Features in Five Integration series. My name is Atef Ghribi and I am a senior solution architect at Jama Software. Today, we’ll be looking at the Git repositories integration using an example of a repository in GitLab. We make it possible for you to integrate Jama Connect with the 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. Jama Connect being the central space repository for holistic overview across the traceability chain will be able to store the source code change track published by the integration hub from the source code repository management tools such as GitHub or GitLab. This allows software developers to work in their environments without adding additional steps to ensure traceability.

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

Ghribi: The integration hub will take care of publishing the source code, and commit information to Jama Connect as soon as they are available in the Git repository. Additionally, software developers can provide traceability information in their source code commits, which will allow Jama Connect to create the trace links to other items, making sure that source code change sets are embedded into the traceability chain. By providing this seamless integration, Jama Connect will ensure better accessibility beyond tool boundaries to source code traceability for stakeholders who are not necessarily familiar with Git repositories.

This holistic traceability enables better efficiency in conducting impact analysis and controlling the change management process as well as facilitating reporting and tracking of metrics across tools to assess and achieve compliance with less effort. Here is a simple flow between GitLab and Jama Connect. I will start by adding a simple implementation task to my Jama Connect project. This is the input for the software developer to start working on the implementation. Now this is just an example. We can here use any other item type based on the process defined and configured within Jama Connect.

Going to my implementation issues set and here I will start by creating a new task and then I will just save and close and this will create a new implementation task inside of my Jama Connect project. I will take the ID provided by Jama Connect as information that I will use later for the traceability. Now in GitLab I will make some changes to my source code and will make sure to mention the implementation task ID and my source code commit. I’m of course just using the UI of GitLab here to edit the file, but this would be the same process if I’m working on a different environment development machine and submitting the changes sets from my own local repository.

We are just keeping things simple for the time being. So going into my file and then I’m going to edit the file as a single file just here adding some changes and I will make sure to mention in the commit message the message for the change. And then I will just put the ID as I got it from Jama Connect and now I will just commit the changes and we will see what will happen inside of Jama Connect. The integration will take care of the rest and we will go back to Jama and see how the source code change commit was published and how the traceability will be defined inside of Jama Connect.

RELATED: The Benefits of Jama Connect®: Supercharge Your Systems Development and Engineering Process

Ghribi: Within a few seconds based on the integration configured, we can refresh our project inside of Jama Connect and see how the source code change set will be published to the spot in the project tree that we defined in the integration hub. We will just refresh and now we will see that we now have one item representing our change commit with the name that was provided. So if we look closer here, we’ll be able to see that we have that same message. If we look at the traceability on the right-hand side of the screen and our relationship switch it, we will be able to see that there is one upstream link to the task implementation task that we used in the comment.

So as software developers we don’t need to redundantly create any items inside of Jama Connect or create any links after we submit our traceability. If I go also to the task that is inside of Jama Connect and look at the traceability chain, and refresh, we’ll be able to see here that source code traceability that is managed. So we have bidirectional traceability already inside of Jama Connect, which will now allow us to have and embed our code or change sets traceability source code to the traceability chain of our project.

Thank you for watching this Feature in Five session on the Git repositories integration for Jama Connect. If you are an existing customer and want to learn more, please reach out to your customer success manager or consultant. If you are 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 processes.

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

This image depicts our Jama Connect Features in Five video series.

Jama Connect®‘s Features in Five Series:
Your Guide to Streamlining Product Development

Learn how you can supercharge your systems development process! In our Features in Five video series, we pull back the curtains to give you a look at a few of the powerful features in Jama Connect®… in under five minutes.

Topics from this series include:

In this blog, we’ll showcase a selection of topics from our Jama Connect® Features in Five video series, plus preview our upcoming integration video series.

Live Traceabilty™

Would you like 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?

Live Traceability™ in Jama Connect enables you to do just that! Now you can manage requirements with complete traceability across the end-to-end systems development process for proven reduction in cycle time and improved product quality.

This enables the engineering process to be managed through data, and its performance improved in real time; dramatically reducing the risk of product delays, cost overruns, defects, rework, and recalls; and ultimately resulting in faster time to market.

In this video, we demonstrate how Jama Connect helps teams integrate with preferred best-of-breed tools to achieve Live Traceabilty™ across the end-to-end development cycle.

RELATED: The Essential Guide to Requirements Management and Traceability

Reuse & Sync

Struggling with scattered requirements and disconnected systems?

Teams often struggle to build on existing work when requirements and tests are spread across documents and systems. Lacking a live trace, they must manually identify and copy related content, increasing the risk of rework and gaps. Additionally, teams tend to lack visibility across efforts, causing necessary changes to not propagate across reuse content, potentially impacting quality and disconnecting product design efforts.

Jama Connect simplifies and enhances the process of reusing requirements and verifications by allowing you to copy selected content with its containers and its traced items. Synchronization ensures visibility and enables key use cases such as parallel product definition, common content libraries, and product variance.

In this video, we explain how your team can reduce time to market and improve quality by reusing and synchronizing requirements and other content in Jama Connect.

Review Center

Are complex review processes bogging down your development process?

Reviews play a key role in successful product development. Jama Connect’s Review Center streamlines the review process, saving valuable time and making reviews across teams and various stakeholders seamless! In this video, you will learn how to initiate a review, how to invite participants to a review, how users can complete tasks, provide feedback, and finish a review. You also see how moderators can view review activity, interact with feedback, publish revisions, compare review versions, and more.

In this video, we demonstrate a powerful and easy-to-use feature in Jama Connect, the Review Center.

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

Jama Connect Features in Five: Integrations Series

The #1 problem product engineering organizations face is complying with traceability requirements spanning siloed teams and tools. Jama Connect helps teams solve this by offering integrations with various other applications and tools via Jama Connect Interchange™ as well as Jira, Excel, Cameo, and more.

We are excited to announce our upcoming eight-part Jama Connect Features in Five integration video series demonstrating the best-of-breed tools that plug into Jama Connect for Live Traceability!

Integrations shown in this series will include:

  • Jira
  • Excel for Risk Management
  • GitHub
  • API Integration for Automated Tests
  • Test Rail
  • Cameo
  • Azure Dev Ops
  • Enterprise Architect

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

2024 Predictions or Soft-Tech Product, Systems, and Software Development

2024 Predictions for Soft-Tech Product, Systems, and Software Development

As the SoftTech sector moves into 2024, we aim to gain a deeper insight into the factors driving transformation in the development of products, systems, and software and explore how teams within this industry are adapting to meet the challenges posed by these evolving complexities.

In part five of this six-part series, we asked our own industry experts Patrick Garman – Principal Solutions Consultant, and Steven Meadows – Principal Solutions Lead, to weigh in on the SoftTech trends they’re anticipating in the coming year and beyond.

We like to stay on top of trends in other industries as well. Read our Automotive predictions HERE, Aerospace & Defense HERE, Industrial & Consumer Electronics (ICE) HERE, Medical Device & Life Sciences HERE, and Product & Engineering Teams HERE.

Design Trends – What are the biggest trends you’re seeing in your industry right now? How will they impact SoftTech development?

Patrick Garman: With the increased awareness and popularity of tools like ChatGPT, Generative AI and its potential applications in product development and requirements management has come up often in conversations with customers. Common questions include: can AI suggest ‘missing’ requirements, suggest relationship links for existing requirements, or even generate a full set of requirements based on similar products or projects? These are interesting questions, and I can certainly see the potential value that AI could add, but softtech companies should be wary of automating too much of their requirements management and product development processes. Generative AI might be able to provide suggestions or at least a starting point for requirements, but it cannot and should not replace human review and insights.

Steven Meadows: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving at an unprecedented rate and the continuation of the application of AI in software development is no exception. More tools and libraries are being built to help support the automation of development tasks, including coding and test automation. Developers are now able to create more intelligent and user-centric systems, which ultimately improves the stakeholder experience. Over the next few years, I anticipate that we’ll start to see more AI-based applications that will help teams debug code and fix bugs in real-time.

In terms of requirements management in the software world, we’re seeing AI and machine learning assist with tasks such as requirement generation. This will continue to help shape better-quality systems with fewer issues for users. Models in this area are still being improved, but we are already seeing the benefits of AI bringing better-quality systems to market.

Regulations – What changing regulatory guidelines do you anticipate having an impact on companies in 2024?

Garman: Data privacy still looms large in SoftTech and is top of mind for consumers. A 2020 Pew Research study indicated that half of U.S. consumers have not used a product because of privacy concerns. While the European Union acted several years ago by introducing GDRP, the United States has shied away from federal regulation – focusing on specific classes of data (health and financial) and users (children). Traction for data privacy regulation at the state level is gaining speed, though. California introduced the California Privacy Rights Act in 2019, laws are being enacted in Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and Connecticut this year, and eight more states have signed data privacy legislation, with another six currently debating the issue. With the continued growth of connected devices and cloud services, and the emergence of advanced AI, I predict even more attention will be directed to how tech companies collect and use consumer data. To prepare, forward-looking tech companies will take a cue from companies like Apple and take a more proactive ‘self-regulating’ approach to data privacy in their product design.

Meadows: Keeping with the theme of AI, I anticipate that there will be new regulations coming out affecting the application and use of AI in software. Governments and state entities have made it clear that further regulation of AI is coming, so it’s only a matter of time.

It’s clear to see that there have been instances of biased results being produced by AI systems. For example, credit card algorithms that discriminate based on sex and other factors. Algorithms have also been developed that target people based on race, religion, and gender.

It’s unclear if there will be mandates on the particular use of training data as part of a model’s learning phase or whether limitations will be placed on the types of models used. One thing is for certain though – further regulation of AI in software is coming!

Tool Innovation – From a SoftTech industry engineering toolset perspective, what are some of the processes you think forward-thinking firms will be working to leverage or incorporate into their process, and why?

Garman: While it might seem like a step back for some, I think there is a strong movement in software development to find a better balance between planning and implementation activities. Many companies take Agile to mean ‘just go do’ — start writing code as quickly as possible, release to customers early and often, learn lessons on the fly, and incorporate feedback rapidly. That’s certainly part of Agile and a great ideal to strive for, but in practice, it is very difficult to incorporate customer feedback into iterative releases quickly enough. In other words, it’s easy to ‘fail fast’ but very hard to ‘course correct fast.’ That’s not the fault of software teams; there is a lot of pressure to deliver an ever-growing backlog of features and stories, and prioritization is difficult to manage when business objectives and market demands can change overnight! Applying more diligence to the planning activities – defining and getting agreement on requirements before ‘just going and doing’ – goes a long way towards improving software teams’ ability to actively prioritize their backlogs, feel confident that what they are doing is the right thing to be doing, and reduces the amount of rework or technical debt that must be addressed post-release. Adopting a requirements management tool that supports an agile approach will add tremendous value in SoftTech development.

Meadows: Software companies continue to adopt, and rightly so, an Agile work culture and methodology. Forward-thinking Agile teams must be prepared to adapt to challenges that can hinder quality development for their customers. Task management tools like Jira and Azure DevOps (ADO) have become standard ways to manage work including the prioritization of activities, project management, and resource allocation. One aspect of development that is very much neglected is requirements management. Development teams need to be able to effectively communicate with business analysts, product owners, architects, and their own customers, as well as understand whether requirements have been satisfied in real time.

Without a dedicated and purpose-built requirements management system, silos are created in terms of data and teams, leading to systems produced with more defects and lower quality. Forward-thinking- teams should be adopting a requirements tool tightly coupled with their task management applications for effective end-to-end visibility throughout the development cycle, catching issues and mitigating risk earlier in the development lifecycle.

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

What role will cybersecurity play in soft-tech industry development in the coming year and beyond?

Garman: Cybersecurity is perhaps the most important consideration for product development in SoftTech. The convenience of connected devices will continue to drive consumer demand – even my dishwasher connects to the internet! However, this convenience comes with the risk of data breaches and network vulnerabilities. Encrypting data during transmission and storage is just table stakes now. SoftTech companies must be ready to move much faster than in the past to push software and firmware updates in response to new vulnerabilities. The ability to quickly generate impact analyses and trace- identified risks and vulnerabilities to the mitigating requirements is more important than ever in taking a proactive stance toward cybersecurity.

In your opinion, what are the biggest differences between SoftTech companies that will survive to see 2030, and ones that don’t?

Garman: Technical debt is becoming a much larger liability for SoftTech companies as the rate of innovation continues to accelerate – the more technical debt a SoftTech company builds, the harder it will become to quickly respond to emerging trends and innovations. We see it more and more often – once the better mouse trap is available, it becomes the expectation, not the nice to have. Of course, decisions must be made to address near-term or immediate needs and there will always be trade-offs to consider to optimize ROI. SoftTech companies that design and develop their products to not only to fulfill the near-term needs while maintaining the architectural flexibility to adopt future trends will be the ones to keep pace with consumer expectations and win in the long term.

What advice would you give to new companies entering the SoftTech industry?

Garman: Embrace design thinking and avoid jumping too quickly to a solution. This applies if you are a new company or an established company entering a new market. SoftTech products can become commodities very quickly – it’s easier than ever to just copy/paste an existing solution – but that will ultimately only drive prices down as more options are available to consumers. Design thinking is a great framework for requirements management. Start by really defining the problem or needs that your product intends to resolve and also defining the user needs for your target market. User needs are the foundation for good requirements, and good requirements are the foundation for successful products.

What topic(s) do you wish companies were paying more attention to?

Garman: Refocus on user experience. MVP is commonly defined as “Minimum Viable Product,” but I strongly prefer “Minimum Valuable Product”– in other words, instead of designing through the lens of ‘what is the least we can deliver so that a user can accomplish this task or goal,’ adopt a mindset of ‘what is the least we can deliver so that a user has a good experience in accomplishing this task or goal.’ Designing for good user experience does not limit the return on investment (ROI) – in fact, it leads to higher lifetime value through customer loyalty and goodwill.

What is the biggest mistake you see companies in the soft-tech industry making right now?

Garman: I mentioned earlier that I see the trend of software teams re-prioritizing requirements management and planning activities in advance of development activities, and that is in direct response to the issues and pain points that SoftTech companies have experienced as they adopt a ‘just go do’ approach to product development. One of my grad school professors claimed that an 80/20 ratio of planning to doing was the ideal. Every company will need to find its own balance, but the data is clear – companies that apply diligence in requirements management are faster to market, expend less time and resources in the actual development phase, and experience fewer defects after release.

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

Do you think there will be any major disruptors in the SoftTech industry in the coming year? How do you think it will impact the industry?

Garman: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, advancements in artificial intelligence. The potential applications are tremendous! I’ve mentioned the potential for using AI to develop products. In the short term, we’ll likely see more soft-tech companies employing generative AI for product support and predictive process automation. Conversational AI will also change the way we interact with software and connected devices. The market for voice assistants has a projected CAGR of nearly 27% over the next eight years and hands-free devices are projected to have a 7% CAGR over the next five years – and that is based on the current task-based commands that are supported. As consumers continue to adopt smart home devices, the expectations for hands-free control will only increase.

What do you predict for regulation in the SoftTech industry in 2024?

Will those trends still be prevalent five years from now? 10 years?

Garman: I’ve already discussed data privacy regulation, and I do think that the federal regulations will be expanded in the United States in the coming years. Regulation for AI – specifically generative AI – is likely next, but what will be enacted and how is still an open question. The two topics are linked in that generative AI produces content based on existing inputs, generally user data and public-facing IP. AI and advanced machine learning have tremendous potential, but aside from data privacy concerns, AI also introduces safety risks. We are already seeing the implementation of functional safety standards in robotics, and as autonomous robots continue to advance, we will likely see increased regulatory oversight. No one wants the rise of Skynet!

This image shows people working together and portrays project lifecycle (PrLM) management.

In this blog, we’ll recap our eBook, “Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM): A Comprehensive Guide. Click HERE to download the entire thing.

Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM): A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome to “Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM): A Comprehensive Guide.” In our eBook, we will explore the principles, methodologies, and best practices for effective project management throughout its lifecycle. Whether you area. seasoned project manager or someone new to the field, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to successfully navigate the various stages of a project and deliver exceptional results.

Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM) vs. Product Lifecycle Management

We know there is often some confusion between Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) so just to set the stage, here is the high-level difference:

  • Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM) — the focus of this paper — refers to the overall management of a project from its inception to its completion. It encompasses activities such as project planning, execution, monitoring, and delivery. PrLM focuses on managing the project-specific processes, resources, and deliverables to ensure successful project outcomes within the defined constraints of time, cost, and quality.
  • On the other hand, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) deals with managing a product from inception to delivery throughout the course of its entire lifecycle. PLM involves the strategic planning, development, and support of a product while taking into account factors like design, engineering, manufacturing, testing, distribution, and even customer service. Throughout its lifespan, it attempts to maximize the product’s quality, functionality, financial success, and market viability.

In summary, while PrLM is concerned with managing the overall project activities, PLM is focused on managing the lifecycle of a specific product, system, or software, including its development, production, and market presence.

With that clarified, let’s begin our journey into the world of Project Lifecycle Management.

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

Understanding Project Lifecycle

What is a Project Lifecycle?

A project lifecycle refers to the series of distinct phases that a project goes through, from its initiation to its closure. It is a structured approach that helps project managers effectively plan, execute, and control their projects. Each phase of the lifecycle has specific objectives, deliverables, and activities that contribute to the overall success of the project. By understanding the project lifecycle, project managers can proactively manage risks, allocate resources efficiently, and ensure that project goals are achieved.

Importance of Project Lifecycle Management

Project lifecycle management is crucial because it provides a roadmap for project managers to follow. It enables them to break down complex projects into manageable stages, making it easier to monitor progress and track outcomes. By adhering to the project lifecycle, organizations can enhance their project success rates, improve resource allocation, and minimize risks.

Common Methodologies Used by Project Lifecycle Management

Project Lifecycle Management methodologies provide a structured framework for managing
a project from initiation to closure. It is important to note that because of the similarities in desired outcomes and development process cross-functionality, PrLM and PLM methodologies often overlap. Here are descriptions of some of the top PrLM/PLM methodologies:

  • Waterfall Model – The Waterfall model is a sequential approach to PrLM. It divides the project into distinct phases, such as requirements, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Each phase must be completed before moving to the next. It’s suitable for well-defined projects with stable requirements.
  • Agile PrLM – Agile PrLM is an iterative approach that emphasizes flexibility and collaboration. It allows for continuous feedback and adjustments throughout the project. Agile PrLM is ideal for projects with evolving requirements and a need for rapid iterations.
  • Stage-Gate Model – The Stage-Gate model breaks the project into stages or phases, each with a decision gate where project stakeholders review progress and decide whether to proceed to the next stage. It’s useful for ensuring alignment with strategic goals and minimizing risks.
  • Spiral Model – The Spiral model is a risk driven PrLM approach that combines elements of Waterfall and iterative development. It involves repeated cycles of planning, risk analysis, engineering, and evaluation. It’s suited for projects with evolving requirements and high uncertainty.
  • V-Model (Verification and Validation Model) – The V-Model extends the Waterfall approach by emphasizing the importance of validation and verification at each phase. It highlights the relationship between development phases and corresponding testing activities, ensuring a robust validation process.
  • Iterative and Incremental Model – This PrLM approach involves breaking the project into smaller, manageable increments that are developed and tested iteratively. It allows for early delivery of partial functionality and is commonly used in software development.
  • PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments 2) – PRINCE2 is a structured project management methodology that includes a well-defined project lifecycle. It focuses on governance, documentation, and clear roles and responsibilities, making it popular in government and public sector projects.
  • Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) – CCPM is a PrLM methodology that prioritizes resource management and identifies the critical chain of tasks that impact project completion. It aims to reduce project delays and improve resource utilization.
  • Design Thinking – Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to PrLM that emphasizes empathy, ideation, and prototyping. It’s often used in creative and innovative projects to solve complex problems and improve user experiences.
  • Hybrid PrLM – Hybrid methodologies combine elements of multiple PrLM approaches to tailor the methodology to the specific needs of a project. Organizations often customize their PrLM processes by selecting components from different methodologies. Selecting the appropriate PrLM methodology depends on the project’s nature, goals, constraints, and the organization’s culture. Project managers and teams may adapt or blend these methodologies to best suit the project’s unique requirements and dynamics.

RELATED: Requirements Traceability Benchmark

Common Phases of a Project Lifecycle

This image shows a circular flow chart depicting the common phases of a project lifecycle.

Although the specific phases may vary depending on the project management methodology used, there are typically five common phases in a project lifecycle: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure. Each phase serves a distinct purpose, from defining project objectives and creating a project plan to delivering the final outputs and conducting a post-project evaluation.

Grasping the fundamentals of project lifecycle management enables project managers to lay a strong foundation for their projects. The next chapter provides a comprehensive
overview of the project lifecycle, emphasizing its significance, the key stakeholders involved, and the challenges that may arise. With this knowledge, project managers can embark on their project journeys with confidence and a clear understanding of the path ahead.

Initiating the Project

Defining Project Objectives and Scope

The initiation phase is the starting point of a project, where the project objectives and scope are defined. This involves identifying the desired outcomes, deliverables, and benefits that the project aims to achieve. Clear and well-defined objectives help align the project team and stakeholders, providing a common understanding of what needs to be accomplished. Additionally, project scope defines the boundaries of the project, specifying what is included and excluded. It is essential to establish realistic and achievable objectives and scope to set the project on the right track from the beginning.

Conducting Feasibility Studies

Before committing resources and efforts to a project, it is crucial to assess its feasibility. Feasibility studies evaluate various aspects, such as technical, economic, operational, legal, and scheduling feasibility. This analysis helps determine whether the project is viable and aligns with organizational goals and resources. It allows
stakeholders to make informed decisions about proceeding with the project, modifying objectives, or exploring alternative approaches. Conducting thorough feasibility studies during the initiation phase minimizes the risk of undertaking projects that may prove unworkable or unprofitable in the long run.

Identifying Stakeholders and Their Requirements

Identifying and understanding project stakeholders is a critical step in the initiation phase. Stakeholders include individuals or groups who have a vested interest in or can
influence the project’s outcomes. It is essential to engage stakeholders early on to gather their requirements, expectations, and concerns. By involving stakeholders
from the beginning, project managers can gain valuable insights and build support and commitment for the project. This identification process lays the foundation for effective stakeholder management throughout the project lifecycle.

Developing a Project Charter

A project charter serves as a formal document that authorizes the existence of the project and provides a clear understanding of its objectives, scope, constraints, and stakeholders. It outlines the project’s purpose, defines the project manager’s authority, and establishes the project’s high-level requirements. Developing a project charter during the initiation phase helps align stakeholders, gain project sponsor approval, and set expectations. The project charter becomes a guiding document that shapes the project’s direction and provides a reference point throughout its lifecycle.

Establishing the Project Team and Roles

During project initiation, it is essential to assemble a capable project team and define their roles and responsibilities. This involves identifying the necessary
skills and expertise required for the project and selecting team members accordingly. Assigning roles and responsibilities clarifies expectations, promotes accountability, and ensures that all necessary tasks are covered. Building a cohesive project team in the initiation phase sets the stage for effective collaboration and lays the groundwork for successful project execution.

By effectively initiating a project, project managers establish a solid foundation for success. This chapter has explored the critical aspects of project initiation, including defining project objectives and scope, conducting feasibility studies, identifying stakeholders and their requirements, developing a project charter, and establishing the project team and roles. Through careful planning and consideration in the initiation phase, project managers can position their projects for smooth execution and set the stage for achieving the desired project outcomes.

This has been a preview of our eBook, “Project Lifecycle Management (PrLM): A Comprehensive Guide.
Click HERE to download the entire guide.
Image showing why documents are difficult for requirements management

In this blog, we’ll overview our recent eBook, “The Strategic Transition: From Word and Excel to Modern Requirements Management” – To read the entire thing, download it HERE

Why Relying Solely on Documents Won’t Cut It in the World of Complex Product, Systems, and Software

Unless your organization’s business model is built on a foundation of inefficiency, you should not be using disparate documents for managing requirements. Whether it’s Microsoft Word, Excel, or a combination of both, trying to wrangle your product’s requirements solely in documents carries a lot of risk and will gradually eat away at your company’s bottom line.

There was a time when using disparate documents wasn’t such a problem for managing requirements, but as products grow in complexity, those days are fading. Many companies no longer produce products that contain just hardware or software; today it’s likely a combination of both, increasing development complexity exponentially.

Integrating hardware and software means teams spanning various engineering disciplines all need to stay aligned throughout development, especially when things like safety standards and regulations are involved.

Using documents alone, will simply not be up to the task of meeting today’s complex products, systems, and software development. When you need precision, context, and accountability for your requirements, a modern requirements management solution is really the only answer.

In the blog post below, we recap our  “The Strategic Transition: From Word and Excel to Modern Requirements Management” eBook in which we detail some of the reasons why you’ll want to leave disparate documents for managing requirements in your rearview. You’ll also get an overview of the benefits you’ll gain by moving to a purpose-built software solution for requirements management.

Five Drawbacks of Documents

Microsoft Word and Excel serve many purposes, and have done so for decades. And, in terms of requirements, for early-phase documentation and coordinating simple projects, they still remain effective tools.

As the complexity of product and systems development grows, so does your list of requirements. And teams need solutions that provide simple and streamlined collaboration, not jumbled — often quickly outdated — comments and suggested edits.

Teams need to be able to instantly connect to globally distributed colleagues to facilitate real-time feedback and make smarter decisions with full context around requirements. Documents simply aren’t up to the challenge.

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

Here are some of the key limitations for a document-based approach for storing requirements:

1. Documents are tedious to maintain

Anyone who has ever managed requirements with documents and several collaborators is familiar with the unique pains of this approach. Whether it’s Word documents that are hundreds of pages long or Excel spreadsheets with thousands of lines, keeping them fresh with updates and free of errors is extremely cumbersome and time-consuming.

2. Versioning difficulties

Collaborating on any kind of important documentation can be painstaking, especially when there’s an enormous amount of requirements involved. For instance, when reviewing requirements, it’s incredibly easy for two people to be looking at different versions of the same set of requirements, and not even know it. And even if it’s a cloud-based version of requirements, there are still plenty of opportunities for someone to unintentionally change something without getting prior approval, and that adjustment not being accounted for in future versions. Plus, online/cloud-based documents do not automatically create different IDs and versions for each requirement or highlight the changes between versions.

3. No traceability

There’s so much room for error through email chains and undisclosed updates. It’s incredibly simple, for example, to miss a tiny change that could have critical ramifications upstream or downstream.

4. Reviews are time consuming

Without traceability, review cycles with an enormous document of requirements are extremely long. You’re likely looking at scheduling lengthy meetings or passing around version after version, pulling team members away from other priorities, which is not ideal when you’re focused on getting to market quickly. And if you’re trying to manage reviews asynchronously, collaboration becomes tricky and timelines are likely to get pushed as people’s schedules shift.

5. Exhausting collaboration between teams

Sharing constantly evolving requirements files among multiple stakeholders and different teams throughout the development and testing process is risky, frustrating, and time-consuming. And with your customer demanding a perfect product, system, or software delivered ASAP, you can no longer afford that kind of inefficiency.

Seven Benefits of Using a Requirements Management Solution

Despite rising product complexity and regulation, most development teams do not have a sophisticated requirement management system in place. In fact, according to a recent survey, almost one-third of teams have no system in place and rely on formal processes with email, documents, and shared spreadsheets.

Another 52% manage their requirements with a system which is not meant for managing requirements, like Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) or Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. And only 15% have chosen to invest in a formal dedicated requirement management solution.

Using a dedicated requirements management solution allows teams to stop getting bogged down on processes and start innovating. For example, MediSync, reports that investing in Jama Connect® has saved 80% of the time that would have otherwise been spent on meetings, sorting through versions of Word documents and emails, and consolidating feedback in review cycles.

Grifols saved around 80 hours per project in medical device development when using the Jama Connect Review Center. And RBC Medical saved around $150,000 per project by improving team collaboration and workflow efficiencies using Jama Connect.

RELATED: The Jama Software® Guide to Requirements Traceability

Here are some of the benefits you’ll get from investing in a solid requirements management solution:

1. Version and change management

A solid requirements management solution will maintain a history of each change made to every requirement. You’ll also be able to record the rationale behind each change, and refer back to a previous version of a requirement if necessary. Some solutions contain a change proposal system that links change requests directly to requirements. And, with a formal requirements management solution, you’ll always know you’re looking at the most recent version of the requirements.

2. Requirements attributes

With a strong requirements management solution, you should be able to record several descriptive attributes for each requirement. The right requirements management software should generate several system-defined attributes such as the date the requirement was created, its current version number, and the person on the requirements should be able to view these attributes, even if only a couple of individuals are allowed to update the attributes’ values.

3. Facilitate impact analysis

A requirements management solution enables requirements tracing by letting you define links between different types of requirements, requirements and different subsystems, and individual requirements and related system components (designs, modules, tests, and user documentation). These links help you analyze the impact that the proposed change will have on a specific requirement. It’s also very helpful to have the ability to trace each functional requirement back to its origin or parent so that you know exactly where every requirement came from. And some solutions use a traceability link to raise suspect flags to a linked item whenever a change is made, so you know exactly what needs to be reviewed after a change.

4. Track requirements status

Collecting requirements in a database lets you know how many discrete requirements you’ve specified for the product. And tracking the status of each requirement during development helps communicate how things are coming along to those across the organization. So, a project manager has good insights into prior states if he or she knows that, for example, 55% of the requirements committed to the next release have been verified, 28% have been implemented but not verified, and 70% have not yet been fully implemented. This type of information gives the project manager information to anticipate the project’s progress, and relay the message to stakeholders accordingly.

5. Control access

A requirements management solution should let you bring as many people into the system as possible, and grant them permission to access the specific parts they’re working on. This helps teams across the organization feel more invested in the product being developed and its progress.

6. Facilitating communication with stakeholders

A requirements management solution should allow team members to discuss requirements issues electronically through a threaded conversation, in one central location, as opposed to having communication spread out across various platforms. It will automatically trigger email messages and notify effective individuals when a new discussion entry is made or when a specific requirement is modified. And it should allow team members to reach out to each other, but also contact non-project members and external users.

7. Recycling/reusing requirements

Storing requirements in a central database facilitates the reuse of them in multiple projects or sub-projects. And requirements that logically fit into multiple parts of the same product can be stored once and referenced whenever necessary to avoid duplicates. This saves a lot of time and reduces the chance of making errors.

TO READ THE ENTIRE EBOOK, CLICK HERE:
 The Strategic Transition: From Word and Excel to Modern Requirements Management


Image showing industry experts who speak about insurance product development.

In this blog, we recap our webinar, “Bridging the Gap in Insurance Product Development”. Click HERE to watch the entire webinar.

Looking to bridge the gap in your insurance product development?

Learn how carriers can utilize Jama Connect® to increase efficiency across the development process and more effectively deliver high quality products on time and on budget.

During this informative session, Lianne Warford, Senior Business Analyst at LHW Consulting, and Steven Meadows, Principal Solutions Lead at Jama Software®, discuss how this newly available insurance framework and dataset streamlines and simplifies product development for the insurance industry.

Gain insights into:

  • Overcoming common insurance industry challenges
  • Leveraging the benefits of a modern requirements management solution
  • The new insurance framework available in Jama Connect, with off-the-shelf elements for enhanced workflow and efficiency

Discover how Jama Connect allows carriers to innovate, bring products to market quicker, and ultimately better serve their customers.

Below is an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

Bridging the Gap in Insurance Product Development

Steven Meadows: Okay, so today, we have a pretty packed agenda. We’re going to be starting off or Lianne’s going to be talking about legacy insurance requirements management. Following that, we’ll be talking about how you can overcome some of the common insurance industry challenges, some of the important considerations for streamlined insurance product development. After that, I’ll be talking about the problem with legacy tools and insurance product development, followed by best practices for an effective development strategy. I’ll then be providing a brief introduction to Jama Connect for Insurance, very high level overview. And then finally, we’ll end with a solution key takeaways and questions. And with that, Lianne, go ahead.

Lianne Watford: All right, thanks Steven so much. I appreciate this opportunity to work with Jama Software. I want to get started today with talking about different scenarios, two main scenarios where requirements are needed in the insurance industry. So we have the policy administration systems that automate the day-to-day operations of an insurance company. And the second area is the new and enhanced insurance products and services that insurance companies want to undertake. So let’s just dive right in. It has a lot of information, so let’s get started. So from the policy administration system, while every insurance company’s unique, processes that all insurance companies share for the day-to-day operations are quite common. And I’d venture to say that you would have to look long and hard to find an insurance company today that doesn’t have some type of policy admin system, whether it be a homegrown system that they’ve done themselves or utilizing some other type of software vendor.

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

Watford: So if you take a look at the areas that are common, you have your policy administration. So every insurance policy starts with a quote and there’s quite a bit of information that needs to be captured. You’ve got your insured name, address, and contact information among others. You have information about the risk that’s being insured, whether it’s a house, a car, or business. And there are specific details for each types of risks that have to be captured to provide an accurate rate for the policy. You’ve got your coverages that are needed for each of the specific types of risks like property damage and liability coverage, and there’s lots of information that needs to be captured around that as well. And then once the policy is bound and issued, there’s several different types of documents such as declaration pages, rating sheets, etc, that have to be generated and are dependent on specific policy details.

And while those requirements are related to the insured risk and coverages, there’ll be an entirely different set of requirements for the output that describe the information about both the static and the variable data that’s needed to be printed. So that’s a ton of information right there. If you haven’t really captured it, we’ve just hit one bullet point under the policy admin. And then you’re always going to have the need to make a change to the policy at some point. And those are processed as endorsements. And while some of these requirements can be reused from the quote bind and issue process, there’ll also be certain rules for different types of endorsements that’ll need to be captured as separate requirements. And then you also have the output that’s specific to those related endorsements. Again, more stuff. And then you also have the processes around your cancellations and reinstatements for underwriting reasons, and you’re going to have documents that go along with that as well.

RELATED: A Wise Investment: Requirements Management and Traceability Solutions During an Economic Downturn

Watford: All of those have to have requirements for the related output and downstream effects as well. And then hopefully the insured’s going to be happy with your service at your company and they’ll want to renew the policy for another term. So yep, there goes another set of specific requirements that are associated with the processing of the renewal as well as the output that’s associated. That’s a big mouthful of information. But then the next step you’ve got to do is collect the money for the premium that’s generated on the policy. So you gather requirements for down payments if you require them. You also provide payment plan options to allow them to pay, and installments are all at one time, so there’s lots of requirements around that. Then you also have special rules for nonpayment of premium cancellations and reinstatements that are different from your underwriting cancellations and reinstatements, different set of requirements.

And then you have to process refunds and collections. Again, and there’s all types of outputs that go along with these processes as well that have to be documented. And then of course, the big thing for an insurance company is your annual statement. That’s your accounting for what insurance companies do. And so, there’s all kinds of requirements for your annual statement, annual statement lines, and statistical reporting. Again, a ton of requirements. And then last but not least is your claims administration, which is the reason that you actually have insurance, right? So that if you need to make a claim, so you have your requirements around first notice of loss and then there’s a ton of information that they have to capture, lots of things that they have to do in that area as well. Come out and inspect, assign agents, all different types of processes for your claims.

And then you ultimately want to make a payment to the insured when it’s needed and processing of reinsurance if your company handles reinsurance. So that’s a mouthful of information and lots of requirements that maybe a lot of people don’t think about when it comes to insurance day-to-day operations. And then when you move on to thinking about the company wants to have new and enhanced insurance products and services. So you’ve got new products that you want to offer, you have new states and lines of business and coverages that you want to move into. And then if you want to enhance existing products, you’ve got rate changes, additional coverages you want to provide. And then there’s all kinds of interfaces, imager, quick rater, all types of interfaces into insurance policy admin systems that help integrate your business. And then not to mention, you’ve got to upgrade those existing interfaces because softwares are continuously evolving.

To watch the entire webinar, visit:
Bridging the Gap in Insurance Product Development