Three Aspects of Software Quality
A Microsoft-sponsored paper was recently published called “The Three Aspects of Software Quality: Functional, Structural, and Process” which describes these three key areas that determine the overall quality of every business application. The paper characterizes each as follows: Functional Quality concerns how it functions for the user, specifically: meeting the specified requirements, minimizing the defects, [...]
Blueprint CloudConnect: Blueprint’s Newest Offering
Today Blueprint publicly announced Blueprint CloudConnect (read the release). This new offering is particularly exciting for our larger clients who integrate Blueprint with Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) servers but want the benefits of our cloud-based requirements definition and management application with the added confidence and security that comes with having a direct, secure network connection. [...]
Blueprint’s First “Hack Day” a Success!
Blueprint’s first Hack Day was a great success! Approximately 50 “Blueprinters” came together forming 12 teams who spent an exciting 24 hours working on their own hacks. The three rules they had to abide by were: 1) It must demonstrate credible business value. 2) Do not make any compromises that would make it “un-shippable”. 3) [...]
Nebulous Requirements Sink a $1B Air Force Software Project
In November 2012 the US Air Force cancelled a software project after spending $1B on it. Both the defense contractor and Air Force’s management of the project are now being investigated by the Senate Armed Services Committee over the failure. The Expeditionary Combat Support System, a supply chain management project, was one of nine software [...]
Blueprint Releases v5.1.2
Blueprint today released Blueprint v5.1.2. This release includes import/export of a wide range of Visio diagram types including Business Process Diagrams, User Interface Mockups, Use Case Diagrams, Storyboards, and Generic Diagrams. By importing these diagrams with automatic shape mapping, this lets them be versioned and managed inside Blueprint, their individual shapes traced with other requirements [...]
Project Managers: 10 Ways Requirements Can Sabotage Your Projects Right From the Start
Want to skip to our complimentary white paper for Project Managers on this topic? Click here Project Management has changed more in the past few years than in the previous fifteen. With the stampede toward agile development, and the push to adopt more collaborative and social approaches to projects, it’s easy to understand why Project [...]
Business Analysts: 10 Reasons Why Documents and Spreadsheets Are Killing Your Career
Want to skip to our complimentary whitepaper for Business Analysts on this topic? Click here Our last blog post referenced job ranking reports from 2012 and 2011 that list Business Analyst as a hot and growing role. Reports like this show that the Business Analyst role is beginning to get the attention it has always [...]
Business Analyst – one of the top 10 job titles for Computer Science Majors
Business Analyst’s are in high demand, and growing (see “IT Business Analysts – Best Jobs in America”). In addition to being highly sought after, the backgrounds of Business Analysts are quite varied. They come from both business and technology sides of the house and there is a broad range of education and skills among them. [...]
Coffee and Collaboration: Upcoming Demo
Join us this Thursday for a live, interactive demonstration of Blueprint. In this session you will see first hand how Blueprint transforms the Business-IT relationship into a visual and engaging collaboration with less rework and reduced project cost resulting in on-time and on-budget applications. And when you complete a short post-demo survey receive a $10 Starbucks gift [...]
Blueprint to Sim-Ship with Visual Studio 2012
Great news! Blueprint v5.1.1 will ship simultaneously with Visual Studio 2012 bringing enterprise-class Requirements Definition and Management (RDM) capability to Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Visual Studio users, allowing project teams and their stakeholders to collaborate using rich visual requirements, live requirements simulation, online review and approval, and to generate their tests automatically. Whether you’re [...]