Return to Archive Runtime - The Software Outsourcing Newsletter for Executives and Investors from Accelerance and Steve Mezak In this issue: Descriptions of new software tools that are available to help you manage your outsourcing. Software to Help Your Outsourcing I have described the seven deadly dangers of outsourcing, that can suck the life out of software development projects and kill your chances for success. Here they are: #1 - Ignoring Outsourcing #2 - Hiring the Wrong Team #3 - Being Promiscuous with your IP #4 - Not Knowing What Your Software Should Do #5 - Meager Engineering Management #6 - Mediocre Methodology #7 - Quality as an Afterthought Of course, there is no software that will keep you from ignoring outsourcing or from hiring the wrong team of offshore engineers. But four of these seven dangers can be minimized with new software tools that have become available recently. This is not an exhaustive survey, but it will give you an idea of tools that are available now and new products just coming out. Avoiding Danger #3 - Protecting Your Intellectual Property (IP) This is a critical danger for some software projects. If your source code is stolen it can kill your company. FortressWare - http://www.Fortressw.com is a new company still in "stealth" mode. They are working on a new product that protects your source code IP and data from internal compromise. It also increases the control and visibility of the activities of your remote software development team. I cannot say too much about how this product works, but it promises to keep your source code completely safe and let you sleep at night. Another IP problem that can be exacerbated by outsourcing is keeping track of what is in your source code. Today it is common to take advantage of various open source components to save time in money in your custom software development. Two companies provide a solution to this problem: Black Duck Software - http://www.BlackDuckSoftware.com delivers products that are compliance management solutions that govern how your software is created, managed, and licensed. Palamida - http://www.Palamida.com automatically detects, manages and reports on the third party, commercial and open source components that may exist in your software code base. Both companies offer various products that scan your source code and compares it to a constantly updated database of information about all known versions of open source code and their licensing agreements. Avoiding Danger #4 - Create Clear Requirements Defining what your software will do is critical to successful outsourcing. How else will your offshore team know what they should do? How will you know when they are finished? Tools have been available for awhile to help you keep track of requirements, especially those that support the Unified Modeling Language (UML). But many UML elements are overkill for requirements gathering and specifying your software. iRise - http://www.irise.com offers an application simulation platform used by business people to get requirements right. A "studio" product is used to sketch the user interface screens and flow from one page to another. Then you can simulate how the application will run. Macromedia - http://www.macromedia.com Just using Dreamweaver MX to create mock-ups of your application pages in HTML is sufficient in most cases. The pages are linked together to illustrate the major use cases of your software. Pick the most interesting stories to tell for your page definitions. They should show how your software will deliver the most value to your users. Avoiding Danger #5 - Effective Engineering Management Artifact - http://www.ArtifactNetwork.com provides a pay-as-you-go, on-demand service delivering visibility and control to your software outsourcing. Role-based dashboards and project management tools help you closely monitor your outsourcing and proactively resolve issues. CollabNet - http://www.Collab.Net provides an on-demand, integrated suite of tools for distributed software development. Avoiding Danger #6 - Use Agile-Aware Methods Rally Dev - http://www.rallydev.com has an on-demand, software lifecycle management product that helps you accelerate agile software development. OptimalJ - http://www.compuware.com/products/optimalj accelerates J2EE development by generating working applications directly from visual models. OptimalJ implements Object Management Group's (OMG's) Model Driven Architecture (MDA). Version One - http://www.versionone.com simplifies the process of planning, tracking, analyzing, and scaling of agile software development. *** Check out these tools to see if they can help your outsourcing be risk-free. RESCHEDULED - Global Software Development: why next-gen tools matter Special discount for panel discussion this Thursday VC Taskforce Emerging Technology Forum Global Software development: why next-gen tools matter Thursday, July 28, 2005: 6-9pm I will be speaking at a panel discussion this Thursday night, July 28th in Palo Alto, California that you may be interested in attending. My part of the talk will be on new tools for global distributed software development and outsourcing - an expanded version of the discussion in this issue of Runtime. A more complete description is below and on the VC Task Force web site: http://www.vctaskforce.com/vcevent/vcevent_2005_06_27.html Runtime subscribers can use the discounted Pre-registration Affiliate rate. I hope to see you there! Vision Resources Are you wondering how you will select an expert offshore team to develop your software? Use the Accelerance Vision Resources(sm) outsourced vendor selection service and cut the time of your vendor selection process by as much as 90%. Vision Resources leverages members of the Accelerance's 17 teams in 14 countries around the world. Click here to learn more about Vision Resources Accelerance, Inc. delivers impartial & expert strategies and services for risk-free outsourcing of your software development. Visit our web site at www.Accelerance.com Until next time, Steve Mezak Accelerance, Inc. Risk-Free Outsourcing www.Accelerance.com 213 Garcia Avenue Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 1-650-712-8990 Contact me by email (c) 2005 Accelerance, Inc. All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the "Runtime" eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read: "By Steve Mezak, CEO of Accelerance, Inc. Please visit the Accelerance web site at http://www.Accelerance.com for more information and resources on outsourcing and creating great software products."