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Posts Tagged ‘Derwyn’

1.7 for single users and unlimited read only

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

We just released our 1.7 for single users which comes with a free named license and unlimited read only access. It’s only been one day and already we’re getting a huge response. This option is a great way to get started with no hassles. Just download Contour, install and your off and running.

This release is very exciting for us, most notably for the subtle and indirect changes.

We have a new logo, which I think is a huge improvement. Something about the circle captures our belief, that the whole team is in it together. Can you feel the love? Also, and this isn’t so small, we have a new web site. The site itself is worth perusing, there’s actually a great paper called “Requirements Redefined” that is based on the premise that Requirements Management is valuable but a pain in the @*s#!, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on it.

Contour itself has a much improved installation, one button….well almost. There’s a “what’s new” that tracks events in the system and then displays them when you log in, so you can see who did what and when. We also did some color tweaking and UI cleanup.

It’s good to get a release out the door but I’m always looking towards the next release. We have so many cool ideas bouncing around, it’s hard to know what to tackle first. We’ve set up a “backstage” site where the public, as well as current customers, can post support questions, comments or feature requests. We’ll also be posting our ideas looking for feedback. I hope you’ll join us there, the more the merrier.

Our Manifesto

Friday, June 8th, 2007

I thought I’d put together a manifesto of sorts that describes our beliefs and the corresponding features in Contour.

Every Project is unique

By making artifacts completely customizable we’ve enabled companies to define their own process. Therefore Contour can adapt to your process rather than the tool forcing your team to adapt.

The whole team matters

A team is made up of many different roles and personalities. Usability, accessibility and notifications are key to ensuring all members utilize and benefit the tool.

Change happens

Tracking change and knowing the impact of a change is critical throughout the life of a project. Contour utilizes traceability between any or all artifacts and provides multi level deep impact analysis, suspect links, matrix and notifications of change.

Data can be everywhere and anywhere

Your requirements may currently exist in Word, Excel, a database or have yet to be gathered. With Contour you can import data, migrate data, or enter data. From there you can attach images, documents or URLs to an artifact. And lastly you can filter, export or render your data in custom reports that are rich and informative.

We’ll be adding more. Feel free to contact us if you can think of other items that should be listed here.

Cross Project Linking

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

Contour’s cross project linking allows a project to reference a requirement in a separate project.

Several clients had requested the ability to link requirements (or any items for that matter) across different projects. During analysis we realized that there were several possible implementations.

One option was to completely link an item from one project into another, such that every attribute exists within the original item. This posed a few problems. Namely that attributes on a requirement (status, priority, assigned to, release, custom, etc) differ from project to project. This problem is especially glaring when considering a project release. One projects release is potentially meaningless to another project. All that is really required is the core of the item being linked, like the requirement description, in the case of a traditional requirement.

This lead us to option 2. Say we have ProjectA and ProjectB. We could create within ProjectB its own item that references, or contains within it, a kind of a proxy to the item in ProjectA. This enables two things. One is that we now have a reference in ProjectB to an actual item in ProjectA, such that, the original item is still owned and managed by ProjectA. While ProjectB has it’s own attributes surrounding this reference. ProjectB can now manage this item under it’s own configuration and process. This is the approach we took when we implemented what we call “Cross project linking”. The image below shows an example of an item in ProjectB that has, or references, an item that exists in ProjectA.

Cross Project Link display

There was a third option that is worth mentioning. Utilizing Contours traceability feature, it would be possible to create a trace relationship to an item in a separate project. It’s clean because it allows you to link across projects without having to create new items in each project. However, there are advantages to having an item that can be tracked and managed independently within each project. In the end we have implemented option two but will be looking for solutions around cross project traceability that may coincide.

Ajax to Java Class

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

Learn from our experiences in building Contour!

Early on in the development of Contour two of our key requirements was it had to be web based with a intuitive and usable interface. This lead us down the path of Ajax which has been a challenging, fun and I’ll go so far as to say a revolutionizing experience. I gave a talk at the Ajax Experience in Boston last year about this experience and the lessons learned while building Contour using Java and Ajax. I felt that it was well received, theServerSide even filmed it (although I have as of yet to see it posted). In putting the presentation together I realized that what we’ve learned and accomplished in the last year could not be summed up in a 90 minute presentation. My presentation focused on what I called the phases of adoption, which basically helps development teams migrate to Ajax slowly and with little impact. Big gains, less pains.

The hardest part is ensuring that you don’t sacrifice design and well written code for the sake of ramping up on Ajax knowledge. There will always be the on-the-job learning but knowing the end goal and having a head start will reduce many of the complex problems that can crop up if you begin to implement Ajax haphazardly.

To help with that head start we decided to put together a two day course that introduces you and guides you down several possible end goals in adopting Ajax in a J2EE application. By strengthening your Javascript and working with proven frameworks like dojo and DWR, adopting an Ajax model can be done in a more structured and controlled manner. Check it out and I hope to see you there.

Ajax Course


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