Whitepapers and Research
Blueprint’s Whitepapers provide in depth analyses of the issues and trends that are confronting today’s Business Analyst as they tackle the requirements definition and management process.
Learn more about . . .
- 7 Software Development Roadblocks Tormenting IT Leaders Today
- Balancing the Outsourcing Equation
- The Rework Tax: Reducing Software Development Rework by Improving Requirements
- The Business Case for Modernizing Requirements Definition and Management
- Report – voke, Success Factors
- Run with the Bulls – Make Requirements Priority #1
- Report – voke, ROI Scenarios
- Optimized Use Cases: How to Build Reusable, Visual, and Intelligent Use Cases for Requirements Definition
- Microsoft Office: The Wrong Tool for Software Requirements
- Be Expressive: Improving Clarity of Your Requirements
- Whitepaper – 10 Ways Requirements Can Sabotage Your Projects Right From the Start
- 10 Reasons Why Documents and Spreadsheets Are Killing Your Career
7 Software Development Roadblocks Tormenting IT Leaders Today
This year, IT Leaders are expected to make big decisions and deliver big changes. Making it happen means you need to remove any obstacles on your path.
Our latest easy-to-scan visual white paper shows you the 7 roadblocks standing in the way of success. Here’s a glimpse of what’s covered…
What’s in the report?
- Where project overruns and massive rework originates
- Why rigid process may actually be detrimental to software development
- Why the promised benefits of outsourcing are often not realized
- Why “clouded visibility” has let requirements issues wreak havoc on projects
Don’t let these 7 software roadblocks sabotage the big changes you’re expected to deliver this year. Find out what you need to know to move them out of your path.
Balancing the Outsourcing Equation
The need to stay focused on the core business, the need for technical expertise, and the need to reduce cost are three key forces sustaining the outsourcing trend. But the nature of outsourcing also introduces new challenges that can limit a company’s ability to realize the benefits being sought.
Some of the typical challenges that become heightened in outsourcing arrangements include:
- Quality problems leading to higher levels of rework
- Compromising requirements to ‘fit’ the easiest to deliver solution, and
- Losing sight of original business objectives as business improvement projects quickly become “IT projects.”
Download the whitepaper – Balancing the Outsourcing Equation and you’ll gain practical, real-world advice on how to shift the equation in your favour, allowing you to minimize risk and realize the promised benefits of outsourcing.
The Rework Tax: Reducing Software Development Rework by Improving Requirements
A staggeringly large percentage of application development costs are spent on rework. Rework is a tax that drains resources and dramatically reduces your company’s ability to react to market demands. Fortunately, you can dramatically reduce this tax by improving the quality of your requirements.
Download our Whitepaper on The Rework Tax, where we examine the impact of poor requirements on the entire software development process and what you can do to dramatically reduce rework. This Whitepaper discusses:
- The Source of the Rework Tax: Poor requirements are the primary source of the Rework Tax. Learn what constitutes “poor requirements” and how the requirements development process breaks down.
- The Dynamics of the Rework Tax: Discover why costs and rework increase exponentially the longer a requirements flaw goes undetected.
- Reducing the Rework Tax: Learn the proven steps you can take to dramatically reduce your Rework Tax by fixing requirements issues before application development begins.
The Business Case for Modernizing Requirements Definition and Management
How Organizations Are improving Project Success Rates.
In today’s economy business pressures are increasing, and pressure in turn is being applied to IT to deliver the applications those businesses need to compete, or even survive.
In spite of the need to perform better, project success rates are actually getting worse. In 2008 IT project success rates were at 14%, 4% worse than in 19983. IT projects success rates have hit a wall.
In order to succeed, IT departments have begun to embrace the concept that modernizing their requirements approach is the key to improving process success rates. Having an integrated solution that addresses the entire requirements lifecycle spanning definition and management in the context of a collaborative approach that involves project stakeholders and team members alike provides the foundation for higher-quality requirements and the ability to deal with the requirements changes in a methodical fashion.
Success Factors: Leverage Requirements Definition (voke Report)
Need your software to deliver true competitive value for your line of business?
Requirements Definition needs to be a strategic part of the business and to positively impact the economics of software development. In this voke report, learn the two key factors that help to increase the success rate of all software process improvement initiatives.
Run with the Bulls – Make Requirements Priority #1
This whitepaper reviews how Requirements Definition software from Blueprint sits at the top of a small list of strategic capabilities that help software executives overcome today’s challenges, providing immediate impact and ROI.
In this whitepaper, we discuss:
- Leveraging Requirements to help manage distributed teams and outsourcers– Requirements are the “blueprints” that provide direction for distributed team-members for what needs to be built and tested. In the case of outsourcers they can also form part of the contract. See how requirements play a key role in managing these distributed stakeholders.
- Minimizing expense and risk– Using requirements to assist with application renewal and consolidation, allowing companies to transition to a more rapid software delivery process.
ROI Scenarios: Invest for Success (voke Report)
In need of a better requirements definition solution?
In today’s software business environment, business analysts need to be able to understand and deliver viable business outcomes through great requirements. In this voke report, learn how the latest requirements definition tools help to empower your business analysts.
Optimized Use Cases: How to Build Reusable, Visual, and Intelligent Use Cases for Requirements Definition
Join Blueprint as we discuss how our customers, many of whom had never leveraged Use Cases before, have evolved to leveraging them as a competitive advantage for their business.
In this whitepaper, learn:
- Overcome Limitations of defining Use Cases – See how distributed teams work together to define consistent, rich use cases
- Integration of Use Cases – Learn how to integrate use cases with other forms of requirements information
- Automatically Generated Use Case Specifications – See the advantages of auto-generating Use Case specifications as opposed to authoring them manually.
Microsoft Office: The Wrong Tool for Software Requirements
Although great as an office productivity suite, MS Office is sorely inadequate for working with requirements. For the business analyst, too much time and energy is spent on creating and maintaining a document rather than focusing on the requirements. For the stakeholder, the document is hard to understand, making it difficult to determine if the business needs are being met.
In this whitepaper, you will learn:
- The advantages of using a purpose-built tool for authoring and validating requirements
- The weakness of ‘one-size-fits-all’ requirements documents and how to tailor documents for individual stakeholders
- Why traceability breaks down with MS Office and how that hurts your projects
- The advantages of working with a real requirements repository instead of relying on the Word document
Be Expressive: Improving Clarity of Your Requirements
Join Blueprint as we discuss how our customers have transformed their approach to defining requirements, choosing the mode of expression that’s optimal for the type of requirement they’re trying to communicate.
In this whitepaper, learn:
- Traceability– How to inter-relate requirements of different forms to support requirements analysis, as well as impact and coverage analysis.
- Expressive requirements– Learn the different approaches for expressing requirements with clarity and precision.
- Requirements Solutions - Learn how technology can combine the different forms of expression into a single, unified vision of the future software application
To learn more about improving the clarity of requirements, download the accompanying webinar.
10 Ways Requirements Can Sabotage Your Projects Right From the Start
Most Projects Managers and Project Management Offices just aren’t clear on these 10 major causes of project delays, budget overruns and outright failures.
This report has the answers…
Our latest easy-to-scan visual white paper shines a spotlight on a major root cause of project failure in every organization—requirements. And while the first reaction might be to place blame on the requirements author, the Business Analyst, this is incorrect…
A glimpse at the REAL root causes revealed inside the paper:
- The ‘elephant in the room’ when it comes to agile development—guaranteed to cause problems if not addressed
- Why the benefits of collaboration rarely materialize on every project
- How the trend toward outsourcing impacts requirements and what this means for PMs and the PMO
If you can’t name the 10 ways that requirements are causing projects to fail, this white paper is a must-read.
Fill in the form and download your copy of this visual white paper today.
10 Reasons Why Documents and Spreadsheets Are Killing Your Career
Using documents and spreadsheets to define and manage requirements can be painful—but did you know these tools could actually be killing your career?
This whitepaper shows you why the documents and spreadsheets you’re using every day are actually putting your career in peril, and leaving you at the back of the pack compared to other Business Analysts who know how to work smarter and faster…
Discover why docs and spreadsheets…
- Stop you from making a strategic impact in your company
- Make you the main bottleneck on your own projects
- Place way too much risk on your shoulders
You’ll also read about a tool you’re likely using all the time that actually kills collaboration and causes you to do a boatload of extra work on every project.
If you’re a Business Analyst who wants career success, this whitepaper is for you—and it’s all presented in a brief, easy-to-scan PDF with lots of visuals.
