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	<title>Just Enough Technology &#187; Project Management</title>
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	<link>http://justenoughtechnology.com</link>
	<description>The passion to see business leverage technology both powerfully and economically</description>
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		<title>Why Just Enough Technology?</title>
		<link>http://justenoughtechnology.com/why-just-enough-technology/</link>
		<comments>http://justenoughtechnology.com/why-just-enough-technology/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:35:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave Ranck</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Architecture and Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business and Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Process (SDLC)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Process]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Success]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justenoughtechnology.com/?p=149</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just Enough Technology means providing the right technology to solve the right problem at the right cost. Not too much, not too little. The objectives of the business must be prioritized and kept in mind from concept to design to implementation to maintenance. Every decision made along the way must map to a business objective. [...]


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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Just Enough Technology means providing the right technology to solve the right problem at the right cost. Not too much, not too little. The objectives of the business must be prioritized and kept in mind from concept to design to implementation to maintenance. Every decision made along the way must map to a business objective. Every software requirement must map to a business objective. This is the foundation of Just Enough Technology – clear and concise business objectives. Those objectives drive the requirements, and the requirements drive the design and implementation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is how I ended a short article about Just Enough Technology a while back. I’ve reproduced here for your reading pleasure. Differing opinions are invited <img src='http://justenoughtechnology.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p> <span id="more-149"></span>I’ve worked with many Fortune 500 and 100 clients, as well as small and mid-size companies. While there are many differences between the big guys and the smaller guys, they share one thing in common: the bottom line is their bottom line. Any business is in business ultimately to do one thing: make a profit. True, there are other drivers that individual companies may have, whether it is being a market leader or providing a service for the betterment of humanity. No business can stay in business unless they achieve a positive bottom line. I’m sure everyone understands this basic truth and yet, when it comes to creating, purchasing and maintaining software and perhaps to a lesser extent, hardware, this principle is often left by the wayside. One case in point I’m reminded of was a project for a national company (a household name you would recognize). This company undertook an integration project several years ago and engaged a large consulting firm to create a design and to do the implementation. The project began and the company spent over $20M over a period of perhaps one year. During this time, the company’s major web site was having daily stability issues and was going down frequently. No code was yet written to address these pressing problems. After a year, the only artifact from the project was a mountain of documentation, which included an architectural design. I was brought in to analyze the technical issues with the web site and servers, which I did in about 1 week of effort. At the end of the week, I produced an 18 point recommendation which included a rewrite of the application. Shortly thereafter, I was retained to lead the rebuilding effort and was shown the design that had been produced by the previous $20M effort. Frankly I was shocked. First of all, it was extremely complicated and over-architected and used bleeding edge (for then) technologies that no one at the company knew how to use. Second, the effort the design&#160; must have actually taken was minuscule compared to the mountain of paper it took to produce. I could not believe that they had spent such a large sum of money (lost profit) on what amounted to nothing. Had they implemented the design, it would have been a failure. It would likely have had serious performance issues.. We put a team together consisting of consultants from various firms and paired with employees, and produced our own design. We concentrated on solving the business problem in an efficient manner using technology the company could maintain once the development team was gone. The first thing we did was to shore up the current application so they could function properly. Only then did we begin work on the redesign. The project was completed – design and implementation &#8211; in much less than one year, with 1/4 of the price tag of the previous effort. The project was a great success and remained in production until it was upgraded to new technology. I can’t say who the client was, but if you are an IT professional, it is likely you have used the product at one time or another. That story illustrates the need for Just Enough Technology. <strong>Technology should drive business, it should enable business</strong>. Technology can provide savings or it can provide opportunities that would be difficult to take advantage of without it. That is, if it is used appropriately. When misused it can become an enormous profit-sink that consumes vast amounts of money with little to show for the cost and effort. Software can’t be seen or touched and it can be difficult to appraise a project’s real value or its real cost. Well-meaning tech-types convince business people that they need “the latest and greatest” or bad things will happen. To be fair, most of time I do think their intentions are good, but the truth is the average software architect or developer doesn’t know a thing about the bottom line. They know what is best in a pure sense, but they struggle with what is Good Enough. Since technology seems like witchcraft to many business people, they are hard-pressed to make decisions about how much is too much in regard to software and technology. The outcome many times is overspending and under-delivering. The wrong problem is solved and it is solved in a highly complex manner. Just Enough Technology means providing the right technology to solve the right problem at the right cost. Not too much, not too little. The objectives of the business must be prioritized and kept in mind from concept to design to implementation to maintenance. Every decision made along the way must map to a business objective. Every software requirement must map to a business objective. This is the foundation of Just Enough Technology – clear and concise business objectives. Those objectives drive the requirements, and the requirements drive the design and implementation. Too often this process is short-circuited and a company jumps right to design, resulting in an application that does not provide maximum benefit and probably is over-priced for the needs of the business.
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		<title>Risk Management in Requisite Pro</title>
		<link>http://justenoughtechnology.com/test-process/</link>
		<comments>http://justenoughtechnology.com/test-process/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:23:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave Ranck</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business and Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Process (SDLC)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Process]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Risk]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justenoughtechnology.com/?p=53</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Risk Management is an important part of project success. Here is one way to perform Risk Management using Rational Requisite Pro.


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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Risk Management is an important part of project success. Here is one way to help perform Risk Management using Rational Requisite Pro. Risks are a part of every project. Successful projects successfully manage risks. You can never completely eliminate risk, so it must be dealt with proactively.</p>
<p><span id="more-53"></span></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>From an older article:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Risk management is   an important part of Project Management. In my mind it is one of the most   important aspects of the development process. Throughout the lifecycle of a   project, risks will be discovered that, if not dealt with, can cause the   project to fail. By tracking risks and dealing with them head-on and early in   the project, the possibility of project success can be greatly enhanced.</p>
<p>Rational Requisite   Pro is a good tool for managing requirements, but it has no in-built ability   to handle risks. They can be assigned to a requirement as an attribute, but   there is no linkage to a Risk List document or Risk Management Plan. I have   outlined a simple way to add this capability to Req Pro. to add Risk   Management to Req Pro you:</p>
<p>1. Create a   requirement of type Risk<br />
2. Create appropriate attributes for the Risk requirement type<br />
3.  Create Outlines and Document Types to add you Risk documents to your   project<br />
4.  Use a view to manage your Risks</p>
<p>There may be other   ways to accomplish this within Req Pro, but this is one way that works for   us. Follow the steps below to add Risk Management to your project.</p>
<p>Create the Risk   Requirement Type</p>
<p>1.     Select the project in the Explorer and click File &gt;   Properties. The Project Properties dialog box appears.</p>
<p>2.     Click Add: The Requirement Type dialog box appears.</p>
<p>3.     Type Risk for the Name and a Description (up to 255   characters) for the requirement type.</p>
<p>4.     In the Initial Requirement # text box, type the number to be   used for the first requirement of the requirement type you are creating or   modifying. Requirements are automatically numbered as they are created,   starting with the number in this text box. The default number is 1, but you   can change the number to any positive integer.</p>
<p>5.     If you want to allow requirements of this requirement type to   be used in cross-project traceability, select the Allow External Traceability   check box.</p>
<p>6.     In the Requirement Must Contain text box, type or modify a   single word or phrase that must be included in every requirement of this type   that is created, up to 32 characters. This box is optional, and is not   case-sensitive.</p>
<p>7.      In the Requirement Tag Prefix text box, type RISK</p>
<p>8.     Select a Requirement Color and a Requirement Style to be used   in documents for requirements of this type. The default is blue, Double   Underline.</p>
<p>9.     Click OK in each dialog box.<br />
Create Risk Attributes</p>
<p>You probably want to   create special attributes for your new Risk requirement.I suggest you create   at least the following 2 attributes (you can modify existing attributes if   you wish instead of creating new ones):</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" width="75%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="100px"><strong>Attribute</strong></td>
<td valign="top" width="100px"><strong>Values</strong></td>
<td valign="top"><strong>Use</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">Status</td>
<td valign="top">Open</td>
<td valign="top">Close or defer mitigated risks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"></td>
<td valign="top">Deferred</td>
<td valign="top"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"></td>
<td valign="top">Closed</td>
<td valign="top"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">Ranking</td>
<td valign="top">Integer</td>
<td valign="top">A ranking of impact on project.     Use to create Top Ten List</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">Mitigation</td>
<td valign="top">Text</td>
<td valign="top">Strategy for risk mitigation</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>To create the   attributes:</p>
<p>1.     Select the project in the Explorer and click File &gt;   Properties. The Project Properties dialog box appears.</p>
<p>2.     Click the Attributes tab.</p>
<p>3.     Select the requirement type from the list.</p>
<p>4.     Click Add. The Add Attribute dialog box appears.</p>
<p>5.     Type a Label for the new attribute, and select an attribute   type in the Type list.</p>
<p>6.     For list-type attributes, type the values you want to assign   to the value list in the List Values text box. The maximum length for a list   value is 32 characters. Order the values in the list as you want them to sort   in the Requirement Properties dialog box, Attributes tab. For list-type   attributes, you can set the default value using the Default button below the   Values per Attribute list.</p>
<p>For entry-type attributes, type a default value in the Default Value list   box, if appropriate.</p>
<p>7.     To hide attributes of the selected requirement type from all   Rational RequisitePro users in a view and in the Requirement Properties   dialog box, select the Hidden from display check box.</p>
<p>8.     To automatically mark traceability or hierarchical   relationships as suspect when the attribute is changed, select the Change   affects suspect check box.</p>
<p>9.     Click OK to close each dialog box.</p>
<p>Create Outlines</p>
<p>Note: the .dot files   list below are standard RUP artifacts. You<br />
may of course use   any document you choose.</p>
<p>Copy rup_rskpln.dot   to C:\Program Files\Rational\RequisitePro\outlines (or your outline folder   location)<br />
Create a new text document with the following 3 lines (each line must end   with a carriage return):</p>
<p>RUP Risk Plan<br />
Risk Management Plan and Risk List<br />
rup_rskpln.dot</p>
<p>Save as   rup_rskpln.def in the Outlines directory</p>
<p>Copy rup_rsklst.dot   to C:\Program Files\Rational\RequisitePro\outlines (or your outline folder   location)<br />
Create a new text document with the following 3 lines:</p>
<p>RUP Risk List<br />
Risk List<br />
rup_rsklst.dot</p>
<p>Save as   rup_rsklst.def in the Outlines directory</p>
<p>Create Document   Types</p>
<p>1.     Select the project in the Explorer and click File &gt;   Properties. The Project Properties dialog box appears.</p>
<p>2.     Click the Document Types tab.</p>
<p>3.     Click Add. The Document Type dialog box appears.</p>
<p>4.     In the Name text box, type: Risk Management Plan</p>
<p>5.     In the Description text box, type: Project Risk List and   mitigation plan</p>
<p>6.     In the File Extension text box, type: rsk.</p>
<p>7.      Select the Risk default requirement type</p>
<p>8.      Select the RUP Risk Plan outline</p>
<p>9.     Click OK</p>
<p>10.   Do   the same for Risk List but use the following properties:<br />
Name: Risk List<br />
Description: [Enter your description]<br />
File Extension: RSKL</p>
<p>11.    Click   OK.</p>
<p>12.   Click   OK to close the Project Properties dialog box.</p>
<p>You can now add a   Risk Management Document and a Risk List to your Risk Package and add Risk   requirements.</p>
<p>Create Views</p>
<p>Create a view for   Risks. This view will be used to export a list of<br />
risk to be imported into the Risk List document. You should include<br />
those attributes you want in the document and sort on Ranking or<br />
Status and Ranking</p>
<p>To create and   maintain a Risk List:</p>
<p>1.     Add requirements of type Risk and set attributes appropriately</p>
<p>2.     You can set traceability to other requirement types such as   Use Cases</p>
<p>3.     Add a Risk List document to a package in your project and   optionally<br />
a Risk Management Plan document.</p>
<p>4.     Export your risk list to your Risk List document<br />
a. Periodically export the view you created for   Risks to a Word document.<br />
b. Open the Risk List document and use Insert -&gt;   File to insert the exported risk list into your risk list document.</p>
<p>Summary</p>
<p>By creating a   requirement of type Risk, you can use Requisite Pro to trace risks to other   requirements. In this way, you can always know what requirements are affected   by certain risks. You can also maintain your risks in the Req Pro database   and semi-automatically update your risk list document.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


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