The iRise Blog

A new article by Heather Havenstein about how UPS is bolstering their web application development with iRise came out in Computerworld.com yesterday. The article summarizes how UPS has overhauled it process of designing user interfaces for all of their new and upgraded web applications.

This story is not new to anyone who attended Fusion ‘07 last year as Guy Hamblen was one of the our featured speakers. In fact, you can read the blog post and listen to Guy’s presentation from this October iRise blog post.

Here are some new quotes from Guy:

• “The biggest challenge that an application development team has is eliciting the correct requirements at the beginning of the development effort”
• “By modeling the user interface in the requirements phase, the design team can be sure that it knows exactly what the user wants because it has used a simulated version”
• “That allowed us to improve our time to market with application-development releases. That is the fundamental business driver that iRise enabled for us”

The complete Computerworld article is available here.

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Global sourcing is delivering expected cost savings in most cases, according to a recent study done by Deloitte Consulting, covered here in an InformationWeek article. Of the 300 companies surveyed, 70% were satisfied with their sourcing relationships, with 83% reporting an average ROI of 25%. But only one in three executives that participated claimed they are gaining important benefits from innovation or transformational ideas from these relationships.

I would suggest that visualization has to be THE most critical weapon of choice as companies move their global sourcing strategies to the next level. That becomes painfully clear in the survey when IT executives complained about “underestimating the project’s scope, higher-than-expected costs, and poor-quality communications, service, and reporting from their service providers” as the main reasons they drop their services partners. If you’re contemplating moving your global sourcing partnerships from maintenance and support functions to take on new application development, then communication is critical. Visualizing the final product ahead of time with something that all global stakeholders can fully experience can only help drive closer communication, better estimates, faster turn-around and lower risk to the project.

Visualization (in the form of CAD & 3D Modeling tools) has helped traditional manufacturing organizations build better cars, airplanes, computers, etc. in a global sourcing model. Time to market has been cut in half, with better quality products built in a fraction of the cost. It’s time that software catches up!

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Hi, I’m Carla and I manage the Content Network team and wanted to give you all a heads-up on the new release of iRise 6.5. The essence of this upgrade is enhanced collaboration and security. Companies care about that when they’re working with outsourced teams or have a large, distributed group of stakeholders who need to manage and share project information.

The new version delivers this:

• a new comments management module;
• enhanced security via Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) support;
• 64-bit server support; and,
• usability and whiteboarding enhancements .

Want to see more? Check out links on the press release and product section on our site.  

To take iRise for a spin and understand the power of visualizing the customer experience, click here.

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It’s that time of year again; time to reflect on yet another year gone by.  It’s also time to make a set of prognostications for the coming year.  Maybe a “Top 10″ list of predictions for IT organizations in 2008 might be in order.

Number 10:  In financial services, the focus will shift back to cost savings.  Innovation is all well and good, but when large firms are posting multi-billion dollar losses due to the mortgage meltdown, is this one really that hard to predict?

Number 9:  Consolidation will continue in the software world.   Enough said.

Number 8:  New consumer gadgets and Web sites will drive design as a key competency.  It doesn’t matter where or how you build something anymore, it matters WHAT to build in the first place.  Have you looked at how the Boeing 787 is being built?

Number 7: Could this be the year that business analysts get the recognition they deserve?  All the CIOs I talk with consider the hiring of BAs as now mission-critical.  They’re also investing in certification, training and community programs.

Number 6: The CIO becomes a full fledged business executive.  There are no such things as IT projects anymore, just business projects.  The CIO needs to be technology savvy and have an in-depth knowledge of the business.

Number 5:  Global sourcing reaches a new level of complexity.  Off-shoring, on-shoring, near-shoring, blended models and the movement towards outsourced development (versus just support & maintenance) make global sourcing trickier than ever.  Where’s the secret sauce to guaranteeing results?    

Number 4:  Application definition moves out from underneath the shadow of requirements management.   See number 8. 

Number 3:  Security investments will continue to distract from competitive advantage (innovation).  With bad news coming in almost daily about lost laptops, stolen data and cyber attacks, security projects will take precedence over innovation.  Makes you wonder what we could do if there weren’t so many threats out there.  Is 2008 the year companies finally get the upper hand?

Number 2: The pendulum swings back to packaged applications.  With SOA support in full swing, more companies will try to get by with customized packaged applications.  Will competitive advantage suffer?   BTW: you still need to visualize business requirements when customizing packaged solutions…iRise can help.

Number 1:  “Transformation” replaces “innovation” as the buzzword of 2008.  Software is still the lifeblood of a competitive economy.  Yet the process of defining and producing software on time and on budget is still largely broken.  Just the same way that 3D modeling tools transformed whole industries such as automotive and aerospace, application simulation will begin to transform the people, processes and technology in the $500 billion global software market.

What are your thoughts?  Did I miss any big ones?   We can touch base at the end of 2008 to see how well I did…

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Tata Consultancy Services (an iRise Alliance Partner) released the results of their first annual global IT survey recently.  The biggest surprise was that business managers responded that they tend to accept IT problems as a norm and necessary evil. Would you?

Some of the survey highlights include:

• 62% had IT projects that failed to meet their schedules
• 49% suffered from budget overruns
• 47% had higher than expected maintenance costs
• 41% failed to deliver the expected business value and ROI

An interesting question looked at the reaction of business managers and the Board of Directors when IT projects have gone wrong:

The two noticeable differences between the US and Global results were that US Business Managers rarely look for an IT scapegoat and that they are less apt to accept problems as norm and necessary evil.  They are also more likely to continue to provide support to improve IT for the business.

Personally, I find the results troubling and like to see some organizations challenging the norm with new and innovative ideas. Some choose visualization as a critical element of communication to prevent these failures. See some examples here.

TCS is working with iRise to mitigate risks on IT projects. As Vipul Shah, Manager R&D at TCS, put it, “Software development is an inherently complex process faced with the risks of miscommunication and the potential loss of control.  iRise helps TCS mitigate these risks by visually simulating and validating requirements before development even begins. This strengthens the scope of our engagements and ensures the solutions and services we deliver to our clients are exactly as intended.”

The survey was conducted among 800 global mid-level and senior IT staff (23% of them from the US).  You can read more about the survey and download detailed results from this link.

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Christmas started early in the Humbarger household today when I bought my first present of the 2007 Christmas season - a new XO computer.

Actually, I bought 2 computers.  One for me (and my 7-year-old son) and one for a child in a developing nation under a new program from the One Laptop Per Child initiative.

The mission of One Laptop Per Child or OLPC is to “empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.”

OLPC is the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, founding director of the MIT Media Laboratory. The initiative, which provides fully loaded laptops to children for $200, kicked off in 2005 at the World Economic Forum.  Negroponte’s vision is finally coming to fruition, and the Give One Get One program is a way to let ordinary citizens participate in this worthwhile initiative.

The OLPC “Give One Get One” program started today and runs through November 26th.  For a donation of $400, anyone in the United States or Canada can purchase a laptop for a student in a developing nation and another laptop will be sent to the child of your choice.  This is the first time that the laptops have been offered to the general public and the laptops may be delivered in time for Christmas - but no promises.

I can’t wait for my new XO to arrive, and I can’t wait for my other laptop to land in the hands of some future Bill Gates, Nicholas Negroponte, Mozart or someone else who is going to change the world - or just be a better educated citizen of this world.  I hope others are inspired by this program to help children in developing countries have the same technology benefits that our children have and make education a priority for all.

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Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus CIO Magazine, is a self-avowed “generalist” and he was at Fusion taking notes all day. Based on his notes, Gary wanted to make 5 key points before dismissing the crowd for the day.

Listen to Gary’s entire presentation at the iRise conference (Time: 22 minutes).

1. Business Alignment
“You should put a big red x through this word and take it out of your lexicon”. Instead, business transformation is where it’s at. Gary also encouraged everyone to think about business flexibility. The hard part of transformation is developing the necessary soft skills. Gary stated, “your career trajectory will be much steeper when you pay attention to the soft skills of business transformation.”

2. The Role of Technology
“We are at the cusp of the golden age of software development,” said Gary. The perfect storm of 3 things are coming together to propel software development and visualization:

1. a massive amount of computing power available to anyone
2. incredible amounts of bandwidth; the capacity added from the last decade is finally being taken up
3. smart embedded objects in devices

One of the pain points of technology is Web 2.0. Gary reminded us that Guy Hamblen from UPS encouraged everyone to embrace collaborative social computing.

3. Global Sourcing
“We have to take the out out of out-sourcing.” Gary noted that global sourcing is the seminal social and economic moment of our age. Global sourcing is something already embraced by leading companies like GM and UPS, and it is something that is around to stay. Gary noted that only 18% of the world’s population has Internet connectivity, but that 53% have access to a cell phone. He predicted that cell phones will become access points to the Internet.

Earlier in the day, Gary attended Rich Frost’s GM case study presentation and his key takeaway is that software visualization is language and culture neutral.

4. IT Funding
In the short term, IT budget will be growing at only going up 5% or so per year. However, in the big picture the dollars available for innovation and growth will move out into the lines of business. “In the real world,” positioned Gary, “IT execs have to let go of innovation, as innovation must be owned by the lines of business”.

5. CIO Priorities
Gary also thinks that the CIO function is at a crossroads. CIOs and their organizations can either embrace the notion of re-invention or accept the path where IT becomes a utility - an overseer of the data and networks that run a company. Only the CIO’s and others who have reinvented themselves will be around in the future.
Gary’s closing thoughts came from Dick Rutan and Guy Hamblen. “To determine your limitations you must exceed your limitations”, “fail fast and fail often” and “have fun”. In the Key Bank case study presentation, Gary heard the iRise champion say that her users now ask if they can “iRise an application”. Gary made a comment to Emmet that you know you’ve made it when iRise becomes a verb.

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Guy Hamblen had the unenviable task of following the “show” put on by Dick Rutan (one of only 2 pilots to fly nonstop around the world) and Brian Binnie (one of only 3 pilots to fly into and back from space).

Listen to Guy’s entire presentation at the iRise conference (Time: 49 minutes].

But Guy works for “Brown” and he was up to the task. Guy is a 20-year veteran and project manager in the Advanced Technology Group at UPS and he discussed how UPS rolled out an enterprise implementation of iRise over 6 months.

First, Guy provided us with some background on UPS. UPS was founded 100 years ago by 2 guys in Seattle as a courier business. Today, UPS has 427,700 employees and $47.5 B in annual revenue. They deliver 15.6mm packages per day to 7.9 million customers and serve more than 200 countries. They also run the world’s 8th largest airline.

From an IT perspective, UPS is also huge. They have an annual IT budget of $1billion. They run 2 data centers, 15 mainframes, 2300 mid-range computers, almost 8800 servers and 81,000 handheld computers. They handle 15 million tracking requests and track 97,500 vehicles.

UPS adopted a fast track adoption process for iRise. The Advanced Technology Group was tasked with the implementation and process plan - and an exit strategy. They conducted weekly conference calls with business unit champions which enabled them to hear issues first hand - and empowered champions with idea of getting it done and removing roadblocks. Another key was that they centralize processes for control and rapid decision making.

The UPS success factors included:

• Focused on training - including a “just in time” training approach that trained iRise users just before their use of iRise
• Developed SME’s within each business unit as first point of contact
• Created a virtual iRise Center of Excellence to store artifacts like best practices, reference materials, tutorials, quick start guides, etc.
• Established an iRise Internal User Group
• Held each business unit responsible for collecting ROI success metrics for each project

UPS currently has 7 business units actively using iRise for simulation. In first 6 months of implementation, over 45 projects used iRise. There are 350+ registered iRise users and more than 50 managers and stakeholders have received an iRise roadshow presentation. More than 150 BAs took the formal 2-day training course and 50 took advanced iRise training.

Guy also identified what UPS learned in the process. One of the keys was centralizing the early adoption process for control and agility. CIO and senior management support was also critical to rapid adoption. They are continuing to evangelize the product at every opportunity with the goal to have awareness of iRise at all levels.

UPS ran across some “snakes in the grass” too

• not all BAs can use iRise and not all applications can be modeled

• BU managers loved the tool, but some project managers pushed back

• using iRise also raised some questions such as what’s best — high or low fidelity and how to define the metrics?

UPS decided to leave it up to the project team to decide how far to take the fidelity. They also decided that a defect becomes a defect only after sign-off of the iDoc with the business unit.

Going forward, UPS will continue to foster an iRise community through wiki’s, blogs and forums. They will continue to evangelize the product and maintain a continuing program which they feel is essential to maintain momentum.

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