The Digité Fountainhead

For businesses it needs to stay updated by using a...

2011-08-17T07:38:13.953-07:00

For businesses it needs to stay updated by using actual software solutions. Some solutions could be developed by outsourced company that provides Software development for business companies.

Well said. I especially like the open-minded appr...

2011-05-30T19:18:34.440-07:00

Well said. I especially like the open-minded approach that agility should provide. Mash-ups of parts of differing methodologies should be encouraged if it makes sense. Going into each project with an open mind is key to a successful SDLC for that project and will do wonders for insuring a successful project culmination. Always ask "why," but don't forget to ask, "why not?"

Nice post. I like the analogies you have used. I...

2011-02-24T22:38:25.202-08:00

Nice post. I like the analogies you have used.

In principle first part of your summarization is correct. Let me repeat it here for readability. You say that, "the lighter the tool and methodology, the greater is the (maturity and) discipline needed from the development team to be successful" This I agree with.

However second part of your summary which is, "else, it will not all come together when you want it to and in a manner you want it to" is not entirely accurate.

Agile by design promotes activities (daily SCRUM, pair programming, frequent releases, customer proximity) that give you the early and often feedback needed to do course correction. So even if a group is lacking the "discipline" they will not go off track in the end. Meaning you would corrected the course well before the final delivery of your software.

Cloud is on every vendor’s agenda. However, Does a...

2011-02-08T09:57:01.091-08:00

Cloud is on every vendor’s agenda. However, Does all the software solutions in the cloud would be acceptable to Enterprises is the real question?

The Answer for that, most of the software solutions today has the capability of running in a combination of on-premise and cloud model for services,

Instead of SaaS, most of the Core Software Solutions providers even today, believe, cloud should be used for services. The software deployment from them continues to be on-premise as most users want to keep their data with themselves as they feel it is confidential to be exposed on cloud, However if a customer requires SaaS, most of the products are having the capabilities of handling it too.

Examples of such Software Products are Tally.ERP, Ramco On Demand ERP etc. Today, most of the vendors are slowly following the SaaS way as cloud is becoming more and more reality now.

Unlike conventional onsite ERPs, which require up-front investment in IT infrastructure and manpower, most of the products require no initial IT investments. All you need is to start using it with an internet connection! Flexibility and scalability are the inbuilt huge benefits - since you pay for what you use, you can vary the number of users and modules even on a month by month basis.

Yes, Digite’s Agile ALM is undoubtedly getting a lot of attention and acceptance as SaaS Service model from lot of customers both in Indian and across the Globe.

Vijay Govekar
Solution Architect

To the extent that one is looking at purely a tool...

2011-01-23T09:18:57.941-08:00

To the extent that one is looking at purely a tool usage perspective, the use of ANY tool may be considered essential vs. an overhead depending on a number of factors - culture, size of project, grographical spread of the team, etc. If you consider the current situation of many collocated teams doing Scrum or Kanban projects, they are very happy with simply the physical Story/ Kanban board and have zero interest in any electronic tool. However, from the "application's" perspective, whatever work they do would still be a part of that application's lifecycle management. The point I was making is that an "ALM" discussion is not and should not just be an "ALM tool" discussion.

Sudi, yes. You are correct. I would even state i...

2011-01-23T07:05:31.613-08:00

Sudi, yes. You are correct. I would even state it more bluntly and expand it a bit. An ALM solution that is put in place for all to use will make everyone better by consolidation of knowledge and efforts. Thus, avoiding gaps and overlaps. Whether they are good, or not so good, they will be better as a team by adherance to the process. Even a poorly thought out process that is followed is better than a good process that is not followed. The organizations who are individual centric do not get the most out of their teams if that means a concession to the ALM process. Look at the Yankees... Great individual contributors, but they do not play well as a team and therefore fall short of their goals. You can have great talent, but if they do not work as a shared knowledge unit - following an ALM process, they will not reach their ultimate team potential.

I think there is another aspect of organization cu...

2011-01-22T20:32:31.168-08:00

I think there is another aspect of organization culture. Some organizations are inherently process centric, metric centric (not just for the show of it). Some organizations tend to be individual centric where they depend on maverick leaders, individual heroism. ALM tools will add immense value to former category of organizations. To the other group, it will keep questioning the value of such a tool but still do continue to use it. They find it politically incorrect to say that they are not process and data centric.

I might add that the exception swallows the rule. ...

2011-01-21T19:31:32.895-08:00

I might add that the exception swallows the rule. If you make exceptions to the ALM process management by exclusion, then you do not follow an ALM process. Every change, small or large, can have extreme consequences if not documented properly for later consideration.

Well done on the three points!

Thanks for the nice Blog :)

2010-03-23T07:08:58.786-07:00

Thanks for the nice Blog :)

thank you very much

2010-03-01T02:28:57.784-08:00

thank you very much

I would agree that process and governance are requ...

2010-01-27T11:53:05.434-08:00

I would agree that process and governance are requirements for sound engineering results. The advantage here is that it is all in the same "cloud". "Are we smart enough to use it?", is maybe a better question.

Digité provides the breadth needed to effectively manage ALM. But it only leads you to the water, can't make you drink.

We must re-think our management processes to be as flexible as our technical ones. I recognize this may be sacrilegious, but development is a commodity. Domain expertise and the ability to crisply define what you want are the keys to quality products. Any college grad can develop it. You want a management structure of controls and metrics which will help manage costs and produce the require functionality. Doesn't matter what methodology you use. As opposed to spreadsheets and multiple tools, supporting various status meetings, we need an infrastructure which encourages timely access to the real (as opposed to the created) data and have everyone on the same page.

I believe the Digité cloud provides that enablement.

Bill Atteberry
President
Atteberry & Associates

I love the concept of "just enough process.&q...

2010-01-20T11:56:03.216-08:00

I love the concept of "just enough process." Unfortunately, I believe that was what we had in the in the mortgage and banking industry prior to the meltdown. Where IT process can be shortcut we often pursue it at the expense of sound engineering and thoughtful execution. That is why there still must be a role for governance in the application life-cycle world. Checks and balances of a governance process are established to ultimately protect the interests of all stakeholders (even if it slows things down a bit). The real culprit is our never ending Lemming-like pursuit of being efficient at all costs. We have down-sized and right-sized to the point that we're more often than not dumb-sized. Knew better, but made the same mistakes again.

Now, if you could combine an ALM application with just enough process without the losing the all important - Let's do it right governance model then you would really have something.

Derek Scoble
TOTCAT (Too old to care about titles)

Great news! And good insights...particularly the v...

2010-01-19T13:06:22.572-08:00

Great news! And good insights...particularly the value of "just enough process." I am looking forward to taking this into the small and midsize organizations here in the Atlanta area...I believe this is exactly what many folks have been looking for -- a solid platform, the right amount of process/control and the transparency of a collaborative work environment.

Walt Carter
COO, RM Battle

The post is a good read for all in the ALM space. ...

2009-12-30T01:04:32.334-08:00

The post is a good read for all in the ALM space. Automation in agile assumes prominence as it helps to organize, manage and track people and projects more efficiently and effectively.
It is often a challenge to choose the best fit from among various tools in the market. In an attempt to facilitate such discussions, a new group has been created in LINKEDIN groups called AGILE AUTOMATION (Subgroup of Software Process Automation). Pls feel free to join the group and participate in the discussions posted therein.

Inspiring... I truly believe that with the right...

2009-12-16T18:52:32.702-08:00

Inspiring...

I truly believe that with the right ecoystem "great companies" will evolve and thrive. Bangalore seems to have that.Very interesting to see the case in point about "TutorVista".

Loved the statement-"Breakaway opportunities uniquely present themselves in the curves; and races are won or lost in the curves."

Hi there, I was curious at this blog following a l...

2009-04-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Hi there, I was curious at this blog following a long unusual path on the internet. I used to work with Paramesh at Infosys many years back (when I was young). I was interested what Digite is doing these days and surprise, Paramesh is still there! And found this interesting article.

Back to the topic of this light bulb, these are sold by Wal-mart in USA for much less price these days. But guess what there are still not many buyers in the US. The reason being the break-even for cost recovery in a country where energy is relatively cheaper, is rather long.

Cheers!

Hi David,

You make an excellent point. Prod...

2008-11-30T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hi David,

You make an excellent point. Products that are outgrown the Innovators and Early Adopters life stages (Using the terminology from Crossing the Chasm) require simplicity. Complexity is tolerated in these early stages but despised in later.

I also like your point about SaaS products/companies skipping the early life cycle stages hence needing to be simpler! Which as you said is a very difficult thing to achieve.

Thanks,
-Suhas Kelkar
Vice President, Digite

Some markets require complexity. Feature bloat is ...

2008-11-30T15:16:00.000-08:00

Some markets require complexity. Feature bloat is only feature bloat once you move beyond the technical enthusiast, geek.

Apple removed the complexity when they entered a consumer market, because consumers demand sublimated interfaces. They demand the same power without all those controls.

There is a place for complexity, and a place for simplicity.

Since most companies just skip the early market and dive into SaaS, they need to go with simplicity. This is harder to do, without the experieces of complexity to direct your positioning of the pavement.

Simple is hard.

The quality (not just build, but functional) speak...

2008-06-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

The quality (not just build, but functional) speaks bout the product. This is what has happened with google. Another most important reason for attaining that numero uno spot is the 'Trust'.
Interesting to see the last column in the graphic - Brand Value Change % - Look at Blackberry (390%)and Apple(123%). This % change is huge.... does this indicate they are heading towards the google direction?
My two cents....

Building Brand name needs more efforts than buildi...

2008-05-15T02:35:00.000-07:00

Building Brand name needs more efforts than building a
brand-product/business. It is not just a 'name' rather it also involves
various related attributes which contributes in building a Brand name.
Branding in more of communicating the distinctive identity (unique
features or value) of a product/company.
To build a brand name we need to first create a 'Brand'- a good quality
product which is rightly positioned int he market as well. To create and
manage a brand one needs to continuously try to meet the customer and
market needs. Once we are done with creating a world class product and
defining of customer needs, we can start building the brand by
thoroughly and consistently communicating the brand values to the
customers.Also to build and maintain the Brand name we need to meet and
rather exceed to what our brand promises to the customer, continuously
look for opportunities & new trends in the market to always be the first
mover and a successful brand.

The Digité Fountainhead

For businesses it needs to stay updated by using a...

Well said. I especially like the open-minded appr...

Nice post. I like the analogies you have used. I...

Cloud is on every vendor’s agenda. However, Does a...

To the extent that one is looking at purely a tool...

Sudi, yes. You are correct. I would even state i...

I think there is another aspect of organization cu...

I might add that the exception swallows the rule. ...

Thanks for the nice Blog :)

thank you very much

I would agree that process and governance are requ...

I love the concept of "just enough process.&q...

Great news! And good insights...particularly the v...

The post is a good read for all in the ALM space. ...

Inspiring... I truly believe that with the right...

Hi there, I was curious at this blog following a l...

Hi David,You make an excellent point. Prod...

Some markets require complexity. Feature bloat is ...

The quality (not just build, but functional) speak...

Building Brand name needs more efforts than buildi...

Hi David,

You make an excellent point. Prod...